Winging It
by arianapeterson19
Summary: Steve wanted to adopt and Tony just wanted Steve to be happy. None of it goes as they planned and since life didn't come with a how-to guide, they just have to wing it. Art by Xxxniamhsaoirse
1. Party

They were called adoption parties but Steve didn't understand why if no one actually got adopted that day- and nobody ever got adopted on the day of the adoption parties. They got found, claimed, discovered, whatever you wanted to call it, but no one got adopted. This was Steve's fifth party and Tony had complained the entire way there, up until they had arrived, entered, and been surrounded and ultimately separated by children. That was two hours ago.

Tony, for his part, had peeled away from his husband as soon as he could, letting the children surround him like the child magnet he was and finding a nice quiet corner away from the mess. Tony knew what they were looking for in a child- or more importantly what Steve was looking for because Tony was still convinced he was going to be a horrible father. But he loved Steve and Steve would be a great dad. Steve wanted an older boy, one of the kids that were more difficult to adopt because Steve was a softy and would adopt anything that moved. Tony wanted Steve to be happy, so he humored him and went along to each meeting but that didn't mean he enjoyed it.

The spot he had found was quiet and it took Tony almost ten minutes to realize he was sitting next to a little girl who was silently drawing with a purple crayon.

"Hello," said Tony, a bit uncertain as to what to do. "What are you drawing?"

The girl glanced at Tony, bright purple eyes peaking up at him through soft red hair, before quickly looking down again, ignoring the billionaire.

"I'm Tony," said Tony, trying again. "What's your name?"

Again, the girl said nothing just continued to draw on the paper.

"So I guess you hate these parties just as much as I do," said Tony, looking away from the girl and around the room where other children and adults were playing, laughing, and talking. "I'm only here because my husband wants a child. Don't get me wrong, kids are great and all, but I'd be a shit parent. Damn! Steve said no cursing in front of kids. See? I don't even have a kid yet and I'm already screwing up."

The girl continued to color.

"Anyway," said Tony, leaning back against the wall more comfortably. "Steve wants a boy about nine or ten years old. He's found several that he likes but they get adopted before he can make his move. It's like a curse he has or something. Me, I can't even take care of myself properly. I have some bots at home, they're a bit like having kids I guess but they're dead useless. Dummy can't even make a proper smoothie."

The girl set her picture in Tony's lap and looked up at him with her peculiar purple eyes.

"Is this for me?" asked Tony, confused as he looked at the crude drawing of a robot and what could have been a blanket but was probably a larger robot, and a very large duck.

The girl just blinked up at him.

"Well, um, thanks," said Tony. "It's very nice. Steve draws. He's really good at it. Like, brilliant, I keep telling him he could be an artist if this super hero thing ever fall through. Not that this picture isn't nice as well. It's good. See? This is why I shouldn't be a father, I don't know how to talk to children."

The girl turned her head to the side in a questioning manner that looked funny on someone so small, then reached over, picked up an old broken robot toy and put it in Tony's lap as well. Then she looked up at him expectantly.

"So, you like robots?" said Tony slowly, trying to piece together what the kid meant and finally understanding why Steve would want to skip this not talking phase and go right for the kids who can communicate properly.

The child rolled her eyes at him and pointed to the robot and back to Tony.

"You want me to play with a broken robot?"

The girl shook her head.

"You want me to…fix your broken robot?"

Finally, a nod. The girl looked at him and waited patiently.

"Why not?" sighed Tony. "I've got nothing else to do and Steve's bound to take forever getting to know the kids. Let's have a look."

The girl got up and ran out of the room only to return shortly with an armful of a tiny box that held old tools, wires, screws and other bits and ends she had collected.

"Not much to work with, kiddo," said Tony gravely as the girl immediately handed him a screwdriver to take out the back side of the robot. "But you're a smart kid. Thank you very much. Now, see this bit?"

They spent the next hour working on the robot, Tony telling the girl everything he was doing, showing her different parts and what they did, the girl in turn listening intensely and absorbing everything he told her. Sometimes she would point to things in question and he would tell her what it was, something he told her what to do and let her fix a bit. By the time Steve came over, the two were lost in their own world of mechanics, Tony talking and helping her hold the much too large screw driver in her tiny hand while together they screwed the back on to the robot.

"Well kid, I think that about does it, don't you?" said Tony with a smile.

The girl nodded eagerly up at him with a grin, still having remained silent, and pushed the button on the front to turn it on.

"Good morning," said the robot in a mechanical voice, eyes lighting up.

The girl threw herself at Tony, wrapping her short arms as much around his waist as she could, which wasn't very far but Tony returned the hug enthusiastically.

"Looks like you've been busy," said Steve with a grin, crouching down next to his husband to inspect the robot.

"Hey Ducky," said Tony to the little girl. He had been calling her that for a while since she had drawn him such a large duck and he didn't know her name. "This is Steve. I told you about him, remember?"

The girl nodded and smiled shyly up at Steve, half hiding behind Tony.

"Hello," said Steve, smiling kindly. "Thank you for putting up with my husband, I know he can be a handful."

The girl quickly ducked fully behind Tony, small fist clinging to his shirt.

"It's alright, kid," said Tony, grinning down at the girl and rubbing her back soothingly. "Steve may look pretty big but he's a softy. Steve, you have to sit down if you want to hang out with us. You're too big crouching like that. You're scaring the poor kid."

"Sorry sweetheart," said Steve with a smile, sitting down next to his husband. "Are you ready to go?"

"No," said Tony, arm still around the girl but looking right at Steve. "I want this one."

"What?" said Steve, taken aback. Out of all of the times they had visited different homes, Tony had never shown a particular interest in any of the children, preferring to let Steve interact with them and trusting his judgment.

"I want this one," repeated Tony, pulling the girl a bit closer to make his point.

"I thought we talked about adopting an older boy," said Steve slowly.

"We can still do that but I want her too. I like her. She's mine. We've bonded, Steve."

"Tony, you made a robot together. That's not exactly a lifelong commitment move."

"Everything alright over here?" asked the woman in charge of this particular orphanage, a tall lady by the name of Mrs. Sunset.

"Yes," said Tony, putting on his most charming smile.

"Good," said Mrs. Sunset. "I spoke with your husband a little while ago, Mr. Stark, and he mentioned he was interested in coming in tomorrow for an interview with a few of the boys."

"That's great," said Tony, nodding along. "And I want this one."

Steve put his face in his hands, both amused and embarrassed by his husbands antics.

"Who?" said Mrs. Sunset, looking around in confusion until her face fell when she spotted the little girl who was trying her hardest to become one with Tony's side. "Oh, Emmaline? You don't want her. She's a mess."

"Why do you say that?" said Tony pleasantly, thought Steve could tell he was gearing up for battle; Tony didn't like people messing with what he considered his, which included his family and, apparently, this little girl.

"She doesn't talk," said Mrs. Sunset, her upbeat disposition morphing entirely into pure hatred for the tiny girl. "She's impossible to deal with. She doesn't respond, she's too small to be of any use – honestly the child is four years old but the size of a one year old- she looks like a freak, which is one of the main reasons why she's still here taking up space, ungrateful little thing. She has nightmares. Honestly, you'd be much happier with any of the other children. Mr. Rogers, the boys you want to interview are all lovely children. I would stick with them."

Steve and Tony exchanged a look that communicated more than most couples did during the course of their entire relationship.

"We'll be taking Emmaline home with us now," said Tony matter of factly. "You'll be hearing from my friends down in Child Services within the hour."

"You can't just take her," protested Mrs. Sunset. "That's kidnapping. There are procedures and papers that have to be filed first."

"If you look in your records, I believe you'll find all of that filled out," said Tony, thanking Coulson, JARVIS, and his friends in other adoption agencies for setting everything up just in case something like this happened. "You'll just have to sign off on the correct lines, which are highlighted for you. Agent will be here within the day to make sure it's all done and believe me, he is very good at paper work. Thank you so much for your time."

Tony stood up, pulling Emmaline into his arms where she hid her face against his neck. This close, he could feel her shaking and he did his best to cuddle her closer, whispering to her about how he was taking her home with him and all the cool robots he would show her when they got there.

"If you'll just show me where her things are, I'll pack them up and we will be set to leave," said Steve, glaring at Mrs. Sunset until she nodded meekly and asked him to follow her.

"We'll wait in the car," said Tony.

Emmaline didn't look up until several minutes after Tony got them settled in the car, sitting in the back seat together, Tony keeping up a steady stream of chatter that seemed to sooth the girl.

"There those pretty eyes are," said Tony with a soft smile, one usually reserved for Steve alone. "Is Mrs. Sunset always that rude?"

Emmaline shook her head but then paused, pointed at herself and nodded.

"She's just mean to you?" said Tony.

Again, Emmaline nodded.

Tony wanted to march back in and destroy that woman but he settled for comforting his…daughter. He had a daughter.

"You're going to love Steve," said Tony while Emmaline looked at him with her unwavering gaze. "I told you, I'm going to be an awful father but Steve will be fantastic. And we live in this huge tower with the other Avengers. They're okay, Clint's a bit of a bastard. Dammit! I've got to stop cussing."

Emmaline smiled at that, her eyes crinkling a bit as she did.

"Thor is around a lot," continued Tony. "He's large and loud and a secret cuddler. Natasha still scares the he-heck out of me - see, I'm learning – but she makes the best stew. Nothing else, she can't cook anything else, but she makes amazing stew."

"I borrowed a car seat," announced Steve, opening up the door. "You want to put her stuff in the trunk while I strap it in?"

"Sure," said Tony, getting out of the car, still holding Emmaline.

There was a small bag on the ground, one that couldn't hold more than two changes of clothes, certainly no toys, and the sight of it made Tony sick. Without a word, Tony tossed the bag into the trunk and went around to where Steve was just finished putting the car seat in properly.

"All set," announced Steve.

"Here we go, Ducky," said Tony, setting the kid in the seat and strapping her in.

Emmaline didn't protest, didn't squeak, but she didn't look thrilled either.

When the door was shut, Tony looked right at Steve.

"That's all she had?" said Tony softly.

"Yes," said Steve, anger flashing across his face. "Tony, that poor girl, you should have seen her room. It was a closet. A closet! The light didn't even work, no wonder she has nightmares. From what I gather, her mom was Sunset's friend or something and the woman hates her because the girl's alive and her mother's not or something like that."

Tony nodded sadly, seething under the surface and leaning into his husband's chest.

"I'm sorry to spring this on you," said Tony softly. "I know you wanted a son. We can still get one of those, I swear. I didn't even mean to, I was just sitting there and she was sitting there and there were crayons and robots and I love her Steve! She's mine and I love her and I'm buying that entire home if it means we get to keep her."

"Calm down, sweetheart," said Steve soothingly, rubbing his large hands up and down Tony's back. "You don't have to buy the place, Coulson will make sure Emmaline is ours forever and will put that woman out as well. He's good like that. You did well. I've never seen you so joyful than when you were teaching Emmaline how to fix the robot."

"The robot!" gasped Tony, pulling back.

"Relax," chuckled Steve, reaching over Tony's shoulder to take the robot off the top of the car where he had set it earlier.

"You're the best, Cap," said Tony, kissing Steve's cheek. "Now let's take our kid home."


	2. Calm Before the Storm

At the Tower, Tony carried Emmaline in while Steve carried her bag.

"And this, Emmy, is the common room," said Tony. "Want to explore?"

Emmaline nodded. When Tony set her down and she immediately began to toddle around, her tiny form disappearing around the furniture.

"I'm going to go put her stuff in her room," said Steve. "Did you ask JARVIS to order everything she would need for her?"

"Yes," said Tony.

"Thank you."

Tony went towards the kitchen, calling over his shoulder as he did.

"Ducky, do you like juice? I'm getting something to drink and if you like juice, you can have some of Barton's. He always has juice. Do kids even like juice?"

There was no response but Tony didn't actually expect one anymore.

"Hey, how did the kid hunting go?" asked Clint, dropping out of the vent.

"I'm not sure you should call it kid hunting," said Tony. "It makes it sound so morbid. And it went well."

"So Steve found the one and he isn't spoken for?"

"Nope."

"Then how could it have possibly gone well?"

Before Tony could answer, a small form came hurtling into him. He looked down and found Emmaline plastered to his side, shaking and sobbing softly.

"Ducky, what's wrong?" asked Tony, scooping the child up and rocking her gently. "Sh, sh, it's alright, it's okay, I've got you."

"Barton, what did I tell you about bringing home strays?" said Natasha, marching into the kitchen before freezing.

"Wait, you actually got a kid?" said Clint, looking torn between laughing and being shocked. "I thought Steve wanted a son!"

"This is Emmy and she's mine," announced Tony, glaring at Clint. "Emmy, did you meet your Aunt Natasha? I told you, she's scary but awesome. I promise, she won't hurt you."

Emmy shook her head and tried to burrow deeper into Tony's chest, still crying almost silently.

"Sorry," said Tony softly, looking apologetically at Natasha. "Pretty sure she's been mistreated by at least one woman, possibly more. It's not personal."

Natasha nodded, her eyes still firmly on the child quivering in Tony's arms.

"I thought Steve wanted a son," stated Natasha after a moment, walking over to the cupboard and pulling out a cup.

"Why is everyone so focused on the fact that Steve didn't get exactly what he said he was looking for?"

"Because Steve is the only one who showed a real interest in getting a child."

"We don't have to take this," said Tony haughtily. "Come on, Emmy, I'm going to show you my workshop."

Tony made a quick retreat to his sanctuary and set Emmy down just as the door shut behind them. Tony sat on the floor next to where she stood.

"So this is my workshop," said Tony. "At least, this is one of them. And you are welcome here any time; it's never off limits to you or Steve. I'll have to program your signature and make sure JARVIS knows to let you in. The only rule in here is that you can't play with the tools. A lot of the things I have in here are dangerous and while I don't think you can reach most of them, I also don't want you playing with them and getting hurt. Understand?"

Emmy nodded seriously.

"Good. Now that being said, I'm more than encouraging you to learn how to use the tools, just with proper supervision until you're a bit bigger. Dummy! Come here!"

There was a slight whirling and then the one armed bot rolled into view, inspecting the tiny human next to Tony with interest. Emmy, for her part, seemed just as taken with the bot, not displaying any of her previous shyness and walking right up to the moving metal, touching it with a soft hand, grinning when Dummy beeped in happiness as the touch.

"Dummy, meet Emmy," said Tony, smiling at the two. "Emmy lives here now. She's mine but that doesn't mean that Daddy loves you any less, so don't get all pouty like I know you do when I bring home a new friend. And don't make her any smoothies! Emmy, if Dummy tries to give you anything to eat, don't take it."

Emmy smiled and promptly climbed onto Dummy.

"Dummy, be careful."

Tony watched the pair roll around the workshop as he went to work making sure that the most dangerous items were out of reach of Emmy.

"JARVIS, make sure that any of the tools you can control are off unless Emmy has proper supervision or permission to use them," said Tony.

"Of course, Sir," said JARVIS. "And might I say congratulations on acquiring a daughter."

Emmy eyed the ceiling warily.

"That's just JARVIS," explained Tony. "He runs the tower. If you need anything and I'm not around, just ask him. Or wait, you don't talk. Hm, well this will be interesting."

"Tony, are you down here?" called Steve.

"Clint and Natasha were being mean," replied Tony.

"Yes well, you did sort of spring a kid on them," said Steve reasonably.

"If you're going to be all logical then you need to leave the workshop. This is a place of creativity and genius and I will not have you spoiling that with your logic."

Steve chuckled and wrapped his arms around Tony's waist from behind, resting his chin on the top of Tony's head, both of them watching the newest, most unexpected member of their family.

"She's beautiful," whispered Steve.

"She's intelligent," replied Tony.

They stood in silence for a while, connect to let their heartbeats sync up and the general noise of the workshop fill the silence.

"Tony, what I say next is only out of curiosity, so don't go taking it the wrong way," said Steve. "Why did you pick her? We've met lots of kids and while I know you haven't been overly excited about the idea of adopting, you haven't hated any of them. But you also haven't liked any enough to mention it. Why her?"

Tony studied Emmy for a long moment, watching the way she inspected everything, interacted with Dummy, seemed to take in the world around her, and was totally silent.

"She's mine," said Tony after a moment. "I can't explain it, Steve. I didn't even notice her when I first sat down. She didn't say anything, she ignored me at first. And then she gave me this picture and I was talking to her and she looked at me as if I was the most important thing in the world. And then she wanted me to fix her robot and she had tools, Steve! Tools that I'm pretty sure were thrown out at some point but she somehow saved, and she listened and asked questions and I didn't mean for it to happen and I can't even really explain it, but she's mine, Steve. I like her."

"I'm proud of you," was all Steve said in reply.

By dinner, a booster seat had been delivered amongst other things so Emmy joined the team for the meal at the big table. Tony sat her in the seat next to his, Steve sitting across from them as usual making faces to make Emmy smile, and Clint sat on the other side of Emmy. Natasha sat at the head of the table and Bruce was at the other end. Thor was off planet.

Emmy studied the room, eyed Natasha wearily, but as soon as she started getting fidgety Tony would lay a gentle hand on her shoulder and she would look at him. He would smile and ask her a question. Steve put a plate of cheese noodles in front of her with a little fork. Emmy stared at it and waited.

"Hungry, Emmy?" asked Tony.

Emmy blinked up at Tony but didn't verbally respond, opting instead to glance down at her food and back at him, almost fearful.

"Do you like mac and cheese?" asked Tony, suddenly doubtful. "I thought every kid likes mac and cheese. Clint loves the stuff and he's more of an overgrown child than I am. But if you don't like mac and cheese we can make you something else. And by we, I mean Steve. I don't cook. I cook less than Natasha and I already told you how much she cooks. So, do you like mac and cheese?"

Emmy nodded, her eyes never leaving Tony's face, looking at him as if he held the secret to life. Tony furrowed his brow like he always did when he was trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle, then his expression cleared as understanding dawned on him.

"Emmy, that plate is yours," said Tony softly, pointing to the plate but looking right at the child. "That fork is yours too. All that food is yours. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to but no one else is going to take it away unless you are done. Understand?"

Slowly, Emmy nodded and turned back to her food. Next to her, Clint signed something to Natasha across the table. Emmy studied the hand movements for a bit before taking her fork and clumsily feeding herself.

"She's observant," commented Bruce to Steve. "Does she talk at all?"

"I haven't heard her speak yet," said Steve. "The woman in charge said she didn't talk at all."

"She was an idiot," snarled Tony.

Natasha raised one delicate eyebrow but chose not to comment. The tone Tony used was one he reserved for the Ten Rings or HYDRA, not to be taken lightly. She make a note to pay this woman a visit later in the evening.

"So did you pick her because she doesn't talk and you never shut up so she's forced to listen to you?" teased Bruce.

"We bonded," sniffed Tony. "Right Ducky?"

Emmy nodded eagerly, her face lighting up at the endearment. She liked Tony a lot. The man was funny and energetic and said naughty words and liked her back.

After dinner, Tony and Steve went to put their new daughter to bed. Her bedroom was next door to theirs. It had a small bed already assembled in it, airy blue walls, a huge picture window, and dresser recently stocked full of clothes for the little girl. Emmy grabbed Tony's hand and pulled him around the room, pointing at each thing in turn and listening as he explained what it was and that it was hers. Steve leaned against the doorframe, smiling fondly at the two and falling a bit more in love. Tony may have doubted his own parenting abilities but Steve never had.

"Do you want to pick out your own pajamas or do you want Papa to do it?" asked Tony when at last the pair ended at the dresser.

Emmy thought for a moment, eyed the dresser that towered over her, then pointed at Steve.

"Emmy has spoken!" laughed Tony. "Papa, pick out something nice for her please. I'll get her teeth all brushed."

Steve couldn't stop the warm glow that radiated from somewhere in his chest at the sound of Tony referring to him as Papa. He liked the ring to it.

By the time the two made it back into the main bedroom and got Emmy changed into her new shark footie pajamas, the girl was yawning and lifting her arms up for someone to pick her up, which Tony did without hesitation.

"She's got you wrapped around her little finger," teased Steve lightly.

"Emmy, you want Papa to read us a story?" said Tony, ignoring Steve as best he could though the smile playing at his lips gave away the fact that he had heard his husband just fine.

Emmy nodded and allowed Tony to settle her in bed, tucking a soft green blanket in close and pointing to the stuffed dog near her pillow.

"That's yours too, if you want it."

Emmy looked at him, then Steve, then the dog, then back at him.

"Yup," said Tony, answering the question he could see in her eyes. "All yours. You don't play with it or anything. I didn't really know what you liked but I saw it online and thought you might enjoy it, so I got it. It's a problem I have, I buy things that I think people will like or I make them things. It's how I show affection. You'll get used to it."

Steve chuckled but pulled out a book about a princess and a jester and a unicorn named Roger. It wasn't very good in Tony's humble opinion but he hadn't read too many children's books either, so he would have to gather more data before making an honest judgment.

"We'll be in the room right next door if you need us, okay Ducky?" said Tony softly when the story ended.

Emmy nodded.

"Good night, Emmy," said Tony, kissing Emmy's forehead.

"Good night, Emmy," said Steve, also kissing Emmy's forehead. "Sleep well."

It wasn't until after midnight when Steve and Tony were both asleep in bed before the Avengers Alarm went off.


	3. Uncle Clint

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" groaned Tony as the Avengers Alarm blared in the background.

"Language," chided Steve, already rolling out of bed like the properly trained army boy he was.

"Language yourself, I was actually asleep for once," snapped Tony, rubbing his eyes as he stumbled out of bed.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt but the alarm seems to be distressing Miss Emmaline," said JARVIS over the still sounding alarm.

Tony and Steve were out of their bedroom and into Emmy's before they even had time to let JARVIS's words sink in. The little girl was not in her bed, as they had expected, but crouched with her stuffed dog in the corner, small hands covering her ears. Her eyes widened at the unexpected entrance of her new fathers but when Tony ordered the lights on, she recognized them and was running before they spotted her hiding place. Emmy launched herself into Steve's legs because Steve was the closest to her from the door.

"Whoa," said Steve, startling at the sudden impact. "Easy there, baby, easy. You're okay. Hey, what's wrong sweetie? Did the alarm scare you?"

"J, cut the alarm in this room," said Tony.

Instantly, the alarm was silent but could still be heard echoing throughout the rest of the Tower. Emmy clung to Steve's white undershirt, sobbing uncontrollably, Steve's arms wrapped around her holding her firmly against his chest.

"Hey, baby, you're okay. I've got you."

Emmy just sobbed harder.

"Do you want Daddy?" asked Steve quietly, at a loss of how to calm the child.

"Steve, I don't know what to do with a crying kid," hissed Tony, panicked, but Emmy was already reaching blindly for Tony and Steve handed her over.

"Hey kiddo," said Tony softly, trying to quell his racing heart as Emmy burrowed into his neck. "That was just the Avengers Alarm. It probably isn't even something important. Let's go find out what's going on, okay?"

Emmy didn't respond but did seem to slow her tears minutely as Tony talked.

"Let's go see what the big deal is," said Tony to Steve with a sigh. "I swear, if it's not aliens, I'm going back to bed. I'm not in the mood to deal with a mad scientist. Even Bruce."

By the time they reached the common living room, everyone else was assembled.

"You can't bring a kid on a mission," said Bruce with a grin when he spotted the finally calm Emmy resting tiredly in Tony's arms.

"There had better be a really good reason for sounding the alarm," said Tony, shooting Bruce a glare. "Clint needs all the beauty sleep he can get and he's not getting it so now I'm going to have to deal with looking at him for the rest of the week."

"Robot scorpion things attacking DC," said Natasha in her succinct, agent manner.

"Nope, not aliens, I'm going back to bed," said Tony, turning to make his way back to his room but Steve's hand on his arm stopping him.

"Sorry," said Steve, truly looking sorry but not sorry enough to let his husband go. "If it's robots, we'll need you. You can take them down a lot faster than we can."

"I'll stay," yawned Clint. "I have zero interest in fighting more robots this week. You guys go, I'll put the kid back to bed."

Tony looked down at the nearly sleeping bundle in his arms, then at the archer, then at Steve.

"Emmy?" said Tony softly. "Emmy, Papa and I have to go to work right now. It'll just be for a few hours but you can't come with us. Do you want to stay with Uncle Clint?"

Emmy blinked sleepily up at Tony, then over at the archer who Tony was pointing at.

"We'll come back," assured Tony. "This is part of our job, we have to leave sometimes but we always come back. Okay?"

Emmy nodded slowly and reached out towards Clint, who blinked in surprise but easily picked her up. Emmy inspected the archer for a moment, then looked back at Tony and Steve. Her purple eyes were heartbreakingly sad but resigned, her expression saying, "I'm not happy about it but go already."

With a quick kiss on the head from her fathers, the Avengers left Clint and Emmy alone in the living room. For two minutes the pair just stood there, looking after where their family had disappeared.

"Well kiddo," said Clint with a sigh. "Want to head back to bed?"

Emmy shook her head and pointed to the couch, her intentions clear; she would not be getting any sleep for a while.

"Okay, that is the first thing we are going to conquer," said Clint, sitting on the couch and setting Emmy down across from him. "I don't care that you don't talk, kid. That's fine, everyone has their quirks, but there is a much more efficient way to communicate without talking that does not include pointing and hoping for the best. Got it?"

Emmy nodded seriously.

"Good," said Clint. "Because I'm mostly deaf without my hearing aids and your dad made me some really awesome ones, by the way. But I use sign language a lot. So that's what you're going to learn, got it?"

Emmy cocked her head to the side but seemed content enough.

"Let's start with the alphabet," said Clint.

Emmy was a fast learner, soaking in everything Clint showed her and repeating it back exactly as she saw it done. By the time she was yawning again and blinking hard, Clint had taught her the entire alphabet and about 35 signs. By that time, Clint was also yawning and asked JARVIS to turn on the television before laying back on the couch. Emmy made herself at home sitting on the archer's chest, not quite ready to give up her fight to stay awake. Clint didn't mind because she may have been four but the girl was tiny.

The rest of the Avengers returned several hours later, tired but freshly showered from their debrief at base, and found Clint fast asleep on the couch and Emmy curled up on his chest, throw blanket carelessly pooled around them.

"They look so cute," whispered Steve.

And they did. Clint had one arm under the pillow grasping what they all knew was a hidden knife, and one arm around Emmy. Emmy was clutching her dog in one hand and Clint's shirt in the other, as if she was afraid he would disappear during the night, which she probably was. Her soft red hair was splayed around the archer's chest like a blanket.

"You think he would ever invite Laura and the kids over?" asked Steve, looking over at Natasha. "He probably misses them when he has to stay here."

"You'd have to ask him," said Natasha with a shrug. "But I think you'll have an easier time convincing him to let you bring Emmy to his farm than his family here."

"Oh, we should go to the farm, Steve!" said Tony excitedly. "I bet Emmy would love it! And there would be other kids for her to play with. She has to be just about Nate's age."

Steve smiled down at Tony and kissed him softly, saying, "I think that's a great idea."

Emmy began to whimper and twitch, a nightmare taking hold of her. Before anyone could do anything, Clint began rubbing Emmy's back and humming softly, his chest rumbling under Emmy's ear. Quickly, the girl quieted and fell into a deeper sleep.

"Seriously guys, I just got her to sleep," whispered Clint, opening one eye to glare at them. "Keep it down."


	4. Spilled Juice

When Emmy opened her eyes, the room was dim but not dark. She instantly recognized that she was curled up on a broad chest, one that rose and fell steadily in a pattern of sleep. She wanted to slip away, knowing that if whoever she fell asleep on woke up, they would be furious and put her back in the closet. She didn't like the closet. The closet was dark and scary and if she got locked in there then she wouldn't get dinner and time moved differently in the closet. She didn't want to go in there.

Sitting up slowly, Emmy looked around, not recognizing the room at first. It was bigger than the orphanage living room, had less toys and screaming children, and was filled with her new…family? That's right, she had been taken away from the home yesterday by the man who fixed her robot. Tony. And his husband Steve. They wanted her. Tony said so. He had claimed her. He told everyone that she was his and she wanted to be his. No one had wanted her for a long time.

Silently, she slipped off of Clint's chest, because it was Clint she had been sleeping on, she remembered watching the television with him. Clint was nice, he taught her sign language. Finally, she had a way to communicate without using her voice. She could talk, she used to talk a lot but Mrs. Sunset didn't like it when she talked and Emmy didn't like getting in trouble. These people seemed different, though. Clint encouraged her to communicate and Tony answered all her questions, never once minding that she didn't talk back to him.

Emmy made her way into the kitchen and looked up at the counter. She wanted juice but everyone was asleep and she didn't want to bother them. Besides, she was a big girl, she could get her own juice. After studying the layout, Emmy opened the fridge, grabbed the juice from the second shelf, and set it on the ground. Then she opened a few drawers and climbed up to the counter, where she stood up, opened a cupboard, and grabbed a blue coffee mug. Getting down was more difficult but she managed.

The juice jug was full so when Emmy tried to pour it, she ended up tipping the entire thing on the floor, making a huge mess. The sound of the jug hitting the ground effectively woke the Avengers in the living room. Emmy ran to get a towel before they could find the mess she made but in her haste she slipped in the juice, falling and catching her hand on the corner of the still open drawer, cutting it open before she hit to ground.

"Emmy, you okay?" called Tony, stumbling into the kitchen with a yawn.

She froze; there was no way she could find a hiding spot fast enough, she'd just have to take the punishment.

Tony eyed the mess on the kitchen floor and the little girl responsible for it before shrugging.

"I should probably get you a step stool so you don't have to climb the drawers anymore," said Tony, reaching down and picking up his daughter to set her on the counter next to the sink.

Emmy looked up at him in surprise. He didn't sound mad that she had made a mess. He didn't sound mad at all. In fact, he looked a little amused at the situation, as if spilling juice all over the floor was something to laugh about.

"What happened?" asked Steve, moving to sit on a bar stool across the counter.

"Clint's juice spilled," replied Tony, wetting a rag and beginning to clean the scrape on his daughters hand. "I guess Emmy was thirsty."

"Oh, okay," said Steve. "Emmy, you okay?"

Emmy nodded, not quite understanding why they weren't yelling at her but willing to go along with the way this new family did things if it meant she wasn't in trouble.

"It's just a flesh wound," said Tony with a grin over his shoulder. "You want to clean up the juice while I get a bath for her going?"

"Why does she need a bath?" yawned Bruce, walking to the coffee maker and starting a pot.

"Because I think Emmy tried to clean up the juice by rolling in it," teased Tony, tickling Emmy's sides, getting the young girl to giggle.

"You just don't want to clean up the juice," Steve said, pretending to grouch.

"You know it," replied Tony, resting Emmy on his hip and kissing Steve as he passed him.

Tony let Emmy pick out her outfit, which ended up being a purple sweater and black pants but she refused to put on shoes. Steve commented on it but Tony wasn't bothered; he didn't like shoes much either. By the time the kitchen was cleaned, Emmy washed and changed, and they arrived back in the common room, everyone else was awake and eating a breakfast made by Bruce.

"I like your dress, sweater, Emmy," said Clint when Emmy was seated in her booster seat with the rest of them.

Emmy looked down, fidgeted for a moment, then did the sign for "sorry" and "juice", pointing at Clint to make sure he knew she didn't mean to spill his drink.

"It's okay, kiddo," said Clint with his easy grin. "Believe me, worse things have happened. Next time, just ask. Juice is hard to pour when it's so full."

Emmy sent him a small smile as a reward then began to eat her pancakes off of the same plate she used last night because that was her plate, Tony had made that clear. It was purple too, which Emmy liked because it was her favorite color. Living with these people looked like it was going to be a lot of fun.

The first month passed in a blur with Emmy coming out of her shell more and more until she was a giggling mess of red hair and mischief and was absolutely adored by every Avenger. She was slowly warming up to Natasha and would now let the woman sit next to her on the couch but never at dinner. She still hadn't said a word but would communicate via sign language and that was how they discovered that she took after Tony despite not being his flesh and blood. She filed information away and knew a surprising amount about taking things apart even before Tony started teaching her. It was a good month, a quiet month.

And then there was an attack while the makeshift family was at the park.


	5. Park Time Ruined

It was early November, it was cold, and Emmy still insisted on going to the park. They walked, Steve pulling a wagon behind him with blankets and food, Natasha quietly trying to convince Bruce to hold her hand, Thor talking animatedly to Tony about the all the possible flavors of Pop Tarts, and Clint walking with Emmy on his shoulders. They looked like a normal if unusual family out for a day of fun together.

When they reached the park, Steve laid out the largest blanket, the one that could fit them all and protected them from the cold ground, and sat down with his sketchbook while Tony and Clint took Emmy to the playground and Thor, Natasha, and Bruce went to the field to play catch.

Emmy squealed in excitement when she went gliding down the cold slide into the waiting arms of Tony. Tony caught her and swung her around just to hear her laugh. He still thought he was going to be a terrible parent but he loved Emmy so he decided to deal with it as it came.

When Tony set her down again, Emmy ran back to the play toy and began climbing it again. It took her a while because she was still closer in size to a one year old than a four year old, so most things were beyond her reach, but she was creative and took to climbing much like Clint. By the time she reached the tunnel, she was panting but still smiling. However, she found the tunnel blocked by a man wearing all black.

"Hello little one," said the man with a slight accent. When he smiled he revealed slightly crooked teeth that were stained by years of drinking wine and smoking.

Emmy frowned and turned around. She didn't like strangers.

"Wait, where do you think you're going?" growled the man. "I've been camping out here for hours waiting for you."

Emmy took off, using her size to her advantage by diving into the smaller parts of the play toy in hopes of getting back to her family. She could tell the man was right behind her, he was panting and cursing, but she was almost out.

Reaching the open ground that was a short sprint away from the swings where Clint and Tony were, Emmy took off, going as fast as her little legs would take her, but it wasn't fast enough. The man caught her three strides in, wrapping an arm around her waist and hoisting her off the ground as if she weighed nothing.

"Daddy!" screamed Emmy, squirming and reaching for her father.

Tony looked up from his conversation with Clint and neither wasted time with shock, merely jumped into action, both taking off after the man. Steve made to follow, knowing he would be able to catch the man easily with his advanced body, but more people in black came out of the trees and bushes, attacking the other Avengers to buy time for their coworker to get free with the kid.

"That's my daughter you asshole!" yelled Tony, diving and wrapping his arms around the mans legs, sending the kidnapper crashing into the ground.

The kidnapper let go of Emmy in surprise and the girl went flying, hurtling towards the ground, eyes clenched shut in expectation of the harsh impact of hitting the ground. Instead of the ground, though, she felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her into a firm chest, which was what she ended up landing on instead. She didn't even pause before she started fighting whoever had her, needing to get away, back to her family.

"Hey kiddo, quit it, it's just me, it's Uncle Clint, you're okay," said a very familiar voice from just above her head. "I've got you, you're okay. You're safe."

Emmy looked up to confirm that it was, in fact, her uncle. Clint grinned down at her and she instantly wrapped her arms around his neck in a vicelike grip, sobbing uncontrollably. Clint looked around for the next threat, knowing there would be one and knowing that he had to get Emmy to safety.

Easier said than done. They were surrounded and while they had a few weapons among them (they were the Avengers, after all) they were still out gunned, though the only gun they truly cared about was the one pointing at Emmy.

"If you surrender now and come with us, you all get to live," said a woman with blonde hair and yellow eyes.

There was only a moment of hesitation before one by one they set down their respective weapons and Emmy curled further into Clint, hiding from the woman because she had come a long way in trusting Natasha but this was a woman she didn't know.

"I've got you, baby," whispered Clint, rubbing Emmy's back and shielding her as best he could. "It's going to be fine."

They filed out of the park, surrounded by people in black with guns. They loaded into one of those large white vans that just screamed kidnapper and the only thing that stopped Tony from making a snarky comment about it was the fact that his daughter was still in danger. Maybe he was maturing after all. And for that forced maturity, these idiots were going to die.

"Now isn't this cozy?" said the woman as they rolled through the city.

"Yeah, I so enjoy long rides in creeper vans with people I barely know," snapped Tony, hands twitching to get a hold of his daughter, who was still crying into Clint's shirt, or Steve's hand but Steve was sitting next to Natasha on the other side of the van and he didn't want to give away the fact that Emmy was his since it wasn't public knowledge.

"Oh, it won't be a terribly long ride," said the woman with a sickly sweet smile, revealing a smudge of lipstick on her right front tooth. "And will you shut the child up? Honestly, that sniveling is getting on my nerves."

"And that fact that you left my picnic basket at the park is getting on mine," growled Steve, taking attention away from Emmy long enough for Clint to whisper in her ear and get her to be quiet.

Emmy unburied her face at Clint's quiet words and took a quick peak around the vehicle, confirming that each of her family members was still there. She saw her fathers sitting across from each other, silently communicating via looks with Uncle Bruce breathing deeply so as to not unleash the Hulk in such a confined place, Uncle Thor tapping his fingers on his thigh, and Aunt Natasha next to her, her eyes never staying on one spot, always searching for an opening.

"Alright, baby girl," whispered Clint in her ear, barely making any noise at all so that no one else would hear him. "I need you to be brave and trust us. Things are going to get scary and they might try to take you away. If that happens, I need you to know that we're coming for you, all of us. And when this is all over, we're going to take a nice relaxing trip."

Clint kept up his steady stream of talking for the entire ride, switching from telling Emmy how good she was being and how proud they were of her to talking about all the cool places they could go on vacation, never mentioning how they would end up at his farm because the less she knew, the better. But his steady tone and rumbling voice was soothing to the young girl, so he could have been talking about Pearl Harbor and it wouldn't have made a difference.

Eventually, the car rolled to a stop and everyone was once again forced outside. It was snowing, the air was crisp and pure, and the forest around them deadened any outside noise. They were forced into a large holding cell outside of a bunker door.

"You Avengers never get a chance to just relax and enjoy the outdoors," said the woman. "So here's your chance. We'll be back in the morning to talk to whoever survives the night. Enjoy!"

The instant the people in black disappeared behind the closed doors of the bunker, Tony turned to Steve and looked deep into his eyes.

"How are you doing?" the genius asked.

"Emmy," said Steve, trying to move past him.

"Clint's got her for the moment," said Tony, far more calmly than he felt; he too just wanted to get to his daughter but he needed to be sure that his husband wasn't about to have a flashback before he let him near their kid. "But I need to know where your head is at. I know it's cold."

"Twenty percent," whispered Steve.

They had come up with a scale to deal with their variety of head issues. If the situation ever produced a possible trigger, they could update each other to their mental stability via percentages so anyone listening in wouldn't know. When Steve admitted to twenty percent of his mind panicking, Tony knew he was okay to hold their daughter. Twenty they could work with.

"You'll tell me if that changes?" said Tony.

Steve nodded.

That was enough for Tony it seemed because the billionaire let go of Steve's face and they rushed over to their daughter.

"Are you okay, Ducky?" asked Tony, gratefully taking Emmy from Clint and letting her burrow between Steve and him.

"Steve," said Natasha softly, knowing the best way to help the situation was to give Steve a task. "We're not going to survive a night in this cage, you know that. Thor, Bruce, and you have a shot but the rest of us don't if we stay exposed like this."

Steve blinked at Natasha until his vision cleared and he looked down at his husband and daughter who were huddled against him, then at the rest of his family who needed Captain America, not Steve Rogers. Tony nodded up at him, a trusting look that had taken years for Tony to aim at him and there he was, trusting Steve to get them out of this.

"Bruce?" asked Steve, tearing his eyes away from Tony and taking on his Captain America persona. "You good?"

"Yeah," said Bruce, twisting his hands in his shirt uncomfortably, hating the confined space.

"I want you to be ready for a code greed," said Steve seriously.

Bruce nodded jerkily, not liking the idea at all.

"Nat, what type of lock are we looking at?"

"Electric."

"I want to poke it with something," said Tony.

"You do that."

Tony brought Emmy over to the door with him and began trying to slip his arm through to take it apart but his hand was too think.

"Nat, you have small hands, right?" called Tony. "I need them."

Natasha shook her head but went over and helped him. Her hands fit right through the bars, so Tony directed her movements with surprisingly succinct demands. He could feel Emmy starting to shiver in his arms as they worked, her tiny body being the first to start succumbing to the cold.

"Thor?" called Tony, not taking his eyes off the lock. "I need your sea of muscles over here."

"You rang?" drawled Thor.

Tony kissed the top of Emmy's red hair and handed her over to the god. Thor took the child despite his confusion.

"She's cold," explained Tony. "You're warm. And you have that cape on you all the time. So if you let her freeze, so help me but you will regret your long life."

"I understand," said Thor seriously.

Thor was wearing a large jacket and quickly bundled Emmy in it close to his chest. Even her little head barely peaked out, cheek pressed firmly against Thor's red flannel shirt, watching sleepily as the others worked to free them.

"Why doesn't Thor just summon his hammer of destiny and get us out?" asked Tony after the lock proved to be particularly frustrating.

"We don't want to alert our captors, love," said Steve absently while discussing the odds of piloting the small aircraft that looked like a mini quinjet with Clint. "And the odds of that hammer hitting one of use as it smashed it's way through are high."

"I'm Steve, I say things," grumbled Tony. "Purple wire, Nat. No, not that purple one, the other one. Yes."

It was another twenty minutes before they got the lock working properly and by then the snowfall was reaching epic proportions. Thor, Clint, Bruce, and Emmy all huddled in a corner together to conserve body heat while Steve had Tony and Natasha blocked from the wind as best he could with his broad bulk. Tony managed to keep up a steady stream of lewd comments to Steve to keep the soldier grounded and instructions to Natasha to keep her moving, barely pausing to breathe it seemed. Every once in a while he would call over to the others to check on them.

"Bingo!" yelled Tony when the lock whirled into place and the gate opened. "Natasha, I would kiss you if I didn't think you'd kill me with your pinky if I did."

"Or if you weren't married," said Natasha drily.

"No, Steve would understand," said Tony with a smirk. "Purely a platonic kiss amongst teammates, not at all the like hot and heavy kissing I do with Cap. Speaking of hot and heavy, who's ready to commit grand theft aircraft and get the hell out of here?"

"Language," said Steve automatically.

"Dibs on pilot!" called Clint, leading the charge out of the cage and to the only partially hidden aircraft. "Seriously, how dumb are these guys? Who leaves an aircraft unlocked?"

"There are a total of three people in the world who have actually stolen similar planes before," said Tony, moving to the console the instant he was inside. "And out of those three, only one of them has the knowledge and ingenuity to actually hotwire this thing into working. All three of those people are currently present. In short, they are very dumb, my friend. Very dumb indeed."

"Work your magic, Stark," said Natasha, keeping an eye on the bunker.

"I'm married," flirted Tony while he pulled wires apart. "But if you ask my husband and he's cool with it, babe you better believe I'll show you a night you won't ever forget."

The engine started with a hum.

"Yay," said Tony. "Now strap in, minions, time to fly our asses out."

"They don't have a car seat for the little one," said Thor.

"I called dibs on pilot," said Clint, shoving Tony out of the drivers seat just as a herd of angry would be supervillians emerged from the bunker, firearms blaring on the side of the plane.

"I don't care who called dibs, if someone doesn't get us out of here the Other Guy is going to make an appearance," growled Bruce.

Clint grabbed the controls as Tony wove over to Thor and Steve, strapping in and taking the shaking Emmy out of Thor's large arms to pull her close. As soon as they were in the air and out of gunfire range, everyone felt free to move about the cabin.

"Tony, I need you to check the system and make sure there's nothing that can track us," called Clint.

"Emmy, stay with Papa," said Tony, handing Emmy over with a quick kiss.

Emmy sat on Steve's lap and looked up at him, purple eyes taking in every movement he made. Steve seemed lost in his own world, trying to fight off some horrible memory. Emmy tugged on his shirt to get his attention, not liking how tense he seemed.

"What is it, baby girl?" asked Steve, smiling down at his daughter who looked up at him so trustingly, as if she truly believed he could do anything (which she probably did). "Are you okay? It's been a crazy day, hasn't it?"

Emmy nodded slowly. She didn't like how the day was going at all, she didn't like that someone tried to grab her, she didn't like that they were taken away from the park, she didn't like that she was cold, she didn't like the people in black, she didn't like how tense everyone was, and mostly she didn't like that she didn't have her bear.

"Why don't you try to sleep?" suggested Steve even though it was still early in the evening.

Emmy shook her head and waved her hands in the motion of patty-cake.

"Okay," laughed Steve, even more of the tension draining from his face. "Ready? Patty cake, patty cake, baker man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Roll it. And pat it."

Steve tickled Emmy's sides instead of patting to make her giggle.

"And mark it with an E. And put it in the oven for Emmy and me!"

As Steve started another round with Emmy, Tony worked away near Clint, first to make sure that there was no one tracking them and no way to find them and then to get the controls more stable.

"Whoever made this thing did a shit job," said Tony softly as he worked.

"Yes well isn't that why you designed your own?" replied Clint, steering the craft steadily.

"Smartass," snapped Tony, his eyes narrowing as the entire situation caught up to him.

Out of the entire team, Tony was the one everyone wanted to have with them in a crisis because he was just crazy enough to think up the impossible and do it but his coping skills were terrible because he pushed off the reality of the situation until what he deemed as a more convenient time, which was normally a when they were clear of danger. But that did mean his teammates had to watch for the inevitable crash of emotions and figure out the best way to handle each one. Sometimes they just had to wait it out, sometimes distraction worked.

"You realize that Emmy said her first word earlier, right?" said Clint, opting for distracting Tony.

"Yeah, she said Daddy," said Tony, not truly paying attention as he adjusted the final wire and snapped the cover back into place.

Clint silently counted from three to one.

"Holy shit!" yelled Tony, jumping up excitedly. "She called me Daddy!"


	6. Hiding Out

"Say Papa," said Steve for the forty seventh time- Tony counted.

Emmy just blinked up at him sleepily.

"Come on, Steve," chuckled Tony, practically glowing with excitement. "Let her sleep. Maybe she'll want to say it when she wakes up."

"It's no fair," pouted Steve but he still pulled Emmy closer in his arms, allowing her to settle into his warmth while Clint flew the plane over yet another forest.

The plane was cramped, not being meant for six grown adults and a child but that actually worked to their benefit since the heat wasn't working properly, leaving the air constantly chilled.

"Don't let her sleep yet," called Clint from his seat. "We're about five minutes out."

"Five minutes out from where?" asked Bruce.

"From the farm," replied Clint with a genuine smile.

"Next time I think we should try visiting the farm when we aren't hiding for our lives," said Tony, leaning against Steve's shoulder.

"Then be more specific next time," said Natasha.

By the time Clint landed the aircraft out of sight, they were all itching to get out of the cramped place. The plane hadn't even settled before Bruce, the most claustrophobic of the group, was clambering out, Thor and Natasha close behind. Steve and Tony made sure that Emmy was covered to protect from the heavy snow that was still falling before they followed Clint out.

The house was much like they remembered it from so many years before but a good sized addition had been tacked on to the north side of the building and the barn looked like it held a few more machines for Tony to tinker with.

"Honey, I'm home!" yelled Clint when he ran inside, unable to hide his excitement. "I brought company."

"So I see," said Laura, smiling from the kitchen sink while her kids ran in, screaming and hugging their father. "Warning, next time, darling. That would be nice."

"And ruin the surprise?" said Clint, disentangling himself from his kids to get to his wife. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Social or work?" whispered Laura against Clint's lips.

"Work," sighed Clint sadly. "Sorry."

"No problem," said Laura softly. "I'm just glad you're safe."

Clint kissed her again, remembering exactly why he married her all those years ago; she took everything in stride, welcomed everyone into her home, and never fought his need to bring home strays.

"Who's that?" asked Callie, pointing up at Emmy, who was trying to hide in Steve's arms.

"This is Emmy," said Tony, plucking his daughter out of his husbands arms and crouching to be closer to everyone's level. "She's mine."

"You've got to stop introducing her to people like that, sweetheart," sighed Steve. "What he means is that Emmy is our daughter and she's a bit shy."

"Oh," said Callie. "Hi Emmy. I'm Callie. That's my brother Lewis. Nate's taking a nap."

Emmy hid her face in Tony's shirt.

"Callie, Lewis, go play with Auntie Nat and Uncle Bruce," said Laura.

When the kids where gone, Laura approached Tony and Steve, smiling down at the newest addition to the family.

"Hello there, Emmy," said Laura with a warm smile. "Your Uncle Clint has told me a lot about you, though your fathers didn't seem interested in calling."

"Sorry," said Steve, having the good grace to look ashamed.

"I'll forgive you this once," said Laura. "Now, I think you've all had quite the day. Clint will show you to your room. I think you'll want to get cleaned up before we have some dinner."

"Seriously Laura, thank you," said Tony softly, hitching Emmy up more comfortably against his shoulder where she closed her eyes, one hand fisting his shirt and the other thumb going to her mouth. "I don't know how you ended up with an idiot like Clint but I'm glad you did."

"I'm just thankful Clint has you out there watching his back. You've been so kind – no, I know you're going to argue but it's true and the media can suck it – and I'm just happy we can repay the favor."

The room was comfortable, second floor because Clint knew that Tony had an aversion to anything on the first floor, with a large bed in the center and a smaller bed near under a window. The soft brown and red tones made the room cozy and warm without cheapening the rustic feel.

"We put Nate's old bed in here for Emmy," explained Clint. "He's grown out of it – I swear that kid is going to be bigger than Thor – so I figured she could use it when you guys visit."

Before Steve could thank him, the archer was gone, leaving Tony to set the sleeping girl down on the soft light green comforter. Emmy made a soft noise of distress but settled when Tony smoothed her hair back and whispered something. Once she was settled down, Tony stood properly and collapsed on the bed next to where Steve already sat.

"I hate people," groaned Tony, careful to keep his voice low. "I hate people who ruin perfectly nice days at parks. I hate people who kidnap us. I hate people who destroy my only day off this week. Do you know how many all nighters I'm going to have to pull now to get caught up on Avengers and SI projects?"

"Come here," said Steve, dragging Tony up to rest against his chest.

Tony sighed contentedly, turning his head so it rested over Steve's heart. It was his favorite place to rest, right where he could feel Steve's blood pumping, the body heat warming his cheek, muscled arms holding him safely. It was almost perfect.

"We're going to find out who sent these guys," said Steve, his voice rumbling in his chest. "We'll end them in any way you want. I won't even protest because they threatened our family. But right now, we're safe. Our daughter is asleep six feet away, everyone else is under the same roof. We're getting a home cooked meal. We made it."

"I know, but-"

"But nothing. Now sleep. I'll stay up because I know that'll make you feel better and I'll wake you up when it's time for dinner, but you're exhausted and I need you to sleep."

"Steve-"

"Sleep."

"I-"

"Sleep."

"Bossy," grumbled Tony, his eyes already falling closed, lulled into relaxation by the steady thrum of his husbands heart.

"Sleep," said Steve, kissing Tony's messy brown hair.

With a grin and the knowledge that – for the moment – everyone he cared about was within reach, Tony let sleep wash over him, slipping into a peaceful slumber without dreams.

 ***You lot rock! Feedback welcome.**


	7. It's so Fluffy

It was cold and people were yelling and trying to take her away from her family. She didn't want to leave them, they were nice and they were hers and she didn't want to go. But the people in black were stronger than she was and quite a bit larger. She couldn't stop them, they were going to steal her away.

With a start, Emmy woke up, blinking around the room. It wasn't her room and she was alone in a bed that wasn't hers with a blanket that didn't smell like home and in a place she didn't recognize. Tears began to stream down her ruddy cheeks as she climbed out of the bed, dragging the soft blanket with her because it may not have been hers but it was soft and she was scared.

Silently, she crept out of the room, following the long, dark hallway until she was just outside the lit room beyond. There were voices coming from that way, they were laughing and happy sounding and she became painfully aware that she was still crying and couldn't stop. She didn't want to be a baby and babies cried but she was still scared, she didn't know why she was alone or where her family was and she just wanted to go home.

Gathering her courage, Emmy slipped into the living room and froze. It was full of people, most of whom she recognized instantly but several that she didn't know. Off to one side a group of children were sitting in front of a television watching a movie with bright colors and talking fish. Emmy didn't want to deal with that, so instead she wandered over to the adults, feeling better when she saw her fathers on the small couch.

"Daddy," said Emmy softly, not quite finished crying, borrowed blanket dragging behind her.

"Ducky, you're up," said Tony with a smile, instantly scooping up his daughter and setting her on his lap. "What's the matter? Did you have a bad dream?"

Emmy nodded and leaned into him, taking in the warmth and security he provided and relaxing instantly.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" asked Tony, ignoring everyone else around him who were giving him strange looks that made him think they thought he was adorable.

Emmy shook her head, content to just sit there and listen to him talk.

"Okay," said Tony. "Well then are you hungry? We are just about to eat dinner."

Emmy nodded.

"Do you want to go with Papa and see if Aunt Laura needs help?"

Emmy didn't protest when Tony handed her over to Steve, blanket and all. She didn't complain when they went into the kitchen. She did, however, insist on being picked back up when Steve set her down to have both hands to help Laura; Emmy just wasn't ready to be left alone, even if she could see her father from the ground.

"So that's the kid?" said Fury when Steve had disappeared into the kitchen with Emmy.

"Yup," said Tony, popping the p at the end of the word. "What of it?"

"Nothing," said Fury mildly. "Just never thought I'd live to see the day where you had a kid."

"Why not? With all the people I've slept with, a kid was bound to turn up sometime. The odds were never in my favor."

"Then I guess I should say that I never thought I'd see the day where you willingly took care of a kid."

"She's mine," snapped Tony.

"Tony," called Steve from the kitchen. "What did I say about that?"

Tony sighed. "Fine. Emmy is my daughter and you can suck my-"

"Anthony Edward Stark-Rogers, the next word out of your mouth had better be something you want your daughter repeating to the press!" warned Steve.

"Dick," snapped Tony, glaring at Fury.

"Tony!"

"What Steve? Come on, I want Emmy to say lots of things to the press. The press is obnoxious and I'd like nothing more than for a 4 year old to put them in their place."

"She's four?" said Fury, his one good eye widening.

"And smarter than you," said Tony smugly.

Fury rolled his eye but before he could respond Laura called them all to the dining room for dinner.

Clint sat at the head of the table with Laura at the opposite end. Nate sat between Natasha and Laura with Callie on Natasha's other side. Thor sat on the other side of Laura with Fury next to him and Steve next to Fury. Lewis sat next to Clint with Emmy on the other side of Clint and Tony next to her. It was a cozy fit but they made it work. Emmy had to borrow a spare booster seat in order to see over the table and she squirmed uncomfortably on it until Tony placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to settle her down.

"Laura, this looks wonderful," said Steve as they began to pass the food around. "Thank you so much for having us on no notice."

"Yes well, turns out our husbands are very similar, always bringing home strays," said Laura with a dry smile.

Emmy took one look at the plate Tony had made her and instantly tried to crawl into his lap.

"What's up, Ducky?" said Tony, scooping himself some mashed potatoes. "Your seat is over there. So is your plate. It's going to make it rather difficult to eat if its out of reach like that."

Emmy tugged on his sleeve and waited until Tony turned his full attention on her. Once she was sure she had it, she pointed to the plate and seat where she was supposed to be sitting.

"I know it's not your normal plate and chair," said Tony. "But your plate and chair are at our home. This is Aunt Laura's home, so you're going to have to be flexible. Can you do that, sweetie?"

Emmy looked back at the seat she had been given and the plate that wasn't hers and suddenly the day just seemed a lot longer than her four year old self was prepared to handle. Instead, she just leaned back against Tony and rested her head over his heart, slumping in exhaustion despite her pervious nap. Tony, for his part, didn't try to push her and just let her sit in his lap, one arm around her back to support her, the other used to eat and gesture when he spoke. Periodically, he would offer her a spoonful of mashed potatoes or green beans; sometimes she would eat it, sometimes she would not.

"Dad, can we watch a movie?" asked Callie eagerly.

"Oh I see how it is," said Laura. "Dad gets home and all of a sudden you ask him for everything."

"Only because he's such a softy," said Natasha with a smile.

"Why don't you ask our guests if they would like to watch a movie with you tomorrow?" suggested Clint. "It's been a long day for us with the flight and everything, so I think everyone could use a good nights rest."

"Fine," pouted Callie before turning to the rest of the table. "Would anyone like to watch a movie tomorrow night?"

"We'd love to," said Bruce with a small smile. "Thank you for asking."

"Why don't we let Callie and Lewis do the dishes and Clint can clear the table while the rest of you head off to bed?" said Laura. "Call it an early night and regroup tomorrow."

"Yes ma'am," said Steve. "Are you sure you don't need help?"

"I would love-" began Clint.

"Clint would love to help his children with their chores and get to talk to Lewis and Callie about their adventure to the principal's office the other day," said Laura over him.

"Busted," said Callie under her breath.

Tony smirked while Steve said good night to everyone, absently swaying where he stood with Emmy. Emmy kept her head resting against Tony's chest, one hand fisting his shirt, blinking sleepily around the room until at last the small family headed back to their borrowed bedroom.

"Bath first, then bed," said Steve firmly when it looked like Tony was just going to put Emmy to bed. "No Tony, it's been a long day and she needs a bath. I'll go ask Clint if they have any spare clothes for her while you get her cleaned, got it?"

"Yes sir," grumbled Tony. "Come on, Em, Papa says no sleeping until you're cleaned."

Emmy was too tired to protest and simply allowed Tony to bring her into the warm bathroom to get her cleaned up. She was mostly asleep by the time Steve came back and got her dressed in an old pair of racecar sleep pants and dinosaur shirt and she was totally asleep when Steve set her down on the small bed.

"So I've been meaning to ask," began Tony, sitting cross legged on top of the kind sized bed, watching as Steve approached. "We still haven't gotten that son you were set on."

"Tony," sighed Steve, sitting on the edge of the bed and tugging off his shoes. "We got kidnapped like twelve hours ago, almost froze to death, had to steal a plane and fly out while getting shot at, and are now in hiding in the middle of nowhere. Do you really think now is the best time to discuss this?"

"Why not?" asked Tony. "If we're waiting around for a good time I think we'll be waiting for a while. If you hadn't noticed, we're Avengers, there's never really a good time."

Steve sighed but got under the covers and leaned against the headboard, looking resigned.

"I know things have been a bit crazy with getting Emmy and such," said Tony, sounding very much like he had rehearsed the entire speech. "And I still think I'm going to be a shit parent. No, listen, we've had Emmy for over a month and she just said her first word. That's not normal. And while I do think I'm going to fuck any kid up, I agree that we can't just have one. We represent opposite ends of the only child spectrum but I know we both agree that growing up alone was boring. So maybe you're right, we should get another kid."

"Tony, come here," said Steve with a sigh, opening his arms in invitation until Tony crawled over and settled against him. "I love you. And I love Emmy. And I agree, she should have a sibling but can we really bring another kid into this lifestyle? Emmy needed us, she couldn't stay there, but is it really fair to put another kid in danger? Are we being selfish?"

"Why do you want to be a father?" asked Tony quietly after a moment.

"What?"

"Why do you want to be a father? What's your reasoning behind wanting to adopt a kid, especially an older boy?"

"I know what it's like to have no one so young," said Steve, confused. "We both do. And for older kids, it's more difficult to find them a family. We could give them the life they deserve. Tony, we've had this discussion."

"I know," said Tony with a smile. "I just wanted to be sure you remembered your side of the argument. I'm normally the one who is against children so I wanted to be sure I got your side right."

"Dork," chuckled Steve, kissing his husbands unruly mop of brown hair.

 *** Up next is some bonding, overprotectiveness, and mischief. Thanks for reading, I love your feedback and hope you are enjoying this story as much as I am loving writing it. - Ari**


	8. Panic and Building

It was almost three in the morning when Steve woke up to a slight weight crawling on his chest. He remained still and pretended to still be sleeping as he identified the source of movement. Tony was sprawled out and snoring softly to his left, taking up far more space than he should be able of doing, so it wasn't him that was moving. Then Steve heard a slight sniffle and caught a whiff of the strawberry shampoo that had been in the bathroom and realized who it was.

"Nightmare?" asked Steve softly, opening his eyes to see Emmy peering at him from above, tears not quite dried on her cheeks.

Emmy nodded, holding the blanket in one hand, chewing on the corner nervously like she did to the ear of her stuffed dog at home. It was a habit Steve was trying to break her of but she was just as stubborn as him.

"Okay," yawned Steve.

The super soldier sat up and carried his daughter to the kitchen where he sat her on the counter while he rummaged through the cupboards, humming when he found what he was looking for.

"You up for some hot coco?" asked Steve, holding up a tin of chocolate.

Emmy nodded, crossing her legs and poking at the coffee maker next to her. Steve ruffled her hair and turned to the fridge to get milk. It took him ten minutes to locate everything he needed before he actually began making the drink, the entire time humming off key. He had almost forgotten that he had company in the kitchen until he heard a soft giggle from the counter where he had left his daughter.

Somehow, Emmy had gotten ahold of a screwdriver and had disassembled the entire coffee maker. She appeared to be in the process of putting it back together and having the time of her life doing so.

"Daddy's going to be upset if that's broken in the morning," said Steve mildly.

Emmy shook her head with a grin and screwed in the final bits of the machine before pointing at it with a triumphant smile.

"Do I even want to know what you did?" asked Steve.

He discovered several hours later exactly what his child had accomplished when she had messed with the coffee maker.

"Why the hell isn't this damn machine working?" growled Clint as he pressed the brew button once again, jamming it as hard as he could with his thumb. "Tony, I thought you programmed this thing to read minds or something!"

"It worked for me," shrugged Tony from his seat at the kitchen table. "It worked for Steve. It worked for Natasha. Maybe it just doesn't like you."

Clint grumbled about coffee machines that thought too much and exactly where it could take those thoughts when it clicked with Steve.

"Emmaline Stark-Rogers, did you make the coffee machine not work for Uncle Clint?" said Steve sternly, looking down at his slightly tired daughter who was sitting on the ground in the kitchen, happily coloring on spare paper.

Emmy looked up fearfully when she heard Steve's stern tone, looking around for some escape until she spotted Clint glaring at the coffee machine.

"Daddy," squealed Emmy, jumping up and running to the machine, pointing. "Daddy!"

"What, Emmy?" asked Tony, looking from his seat.

"Tony, I think your daughter made the coffee machine hate Clint," said Steve with disapproving look. "We came down earlier for some coco to combat bad dreams and I turned around and she was giggling and messing with the machine."

"Yes!" cheered Tony, jumping up, picking up Emmy and spinning her around. "Well done, Emmy! That's my smart, beautiful little girl. So clever, programming the machine to not work for Uncle Clint. Is it just Uncle Clint who can't work it?"

Emmy nodded excitedly, reaching to push the button to make the machine brew just to prove her point.

"I'm so proud of you, Ducky!" cooed Tony, beaming down at her, Emmy clearly soaking up the words. "You're so clever. Good job."

"Tony," said Steve warningly. "You can't encourage her to make mischief like this. It's wrong to make a coffee machine not work for just one person, no matter how impressive it may be."

"Emmy, why don't you show Uncle Clint how you make the coffee machine work for him?" suggested Tony, setting Emmy on the counter under Clint's supervision before pulling his husband to the pantry by the arm.

"Tony," hissed Steve. "You don't encourage this behavior!"

"No Steve," replied Tony, just as softly, just as fiercely, eyes narrowing. "You're wrong. You do encourage this type of behavior because it means she's comfortable enough with us to try. She doesn't think she's going to get yelled at and punished because she made something new. Did you see how excited she was to show us? She was proud and I'm not going to take that away from her."

"You can't let her get away with it, though. It's not just making something new, its making something not work targeting a specific person."

"She's four!"

"So we have to teach her now that you don't mess with other people!"

"Cap, I get it, I do," said Tony, pulling out the Captain card that he only used in fights when he was furious. "You don't want your child to grow up to be a bully. But you know what I don't want her to grow up to do? To be afraid that you or I or anyone she looks up to is going to yell at her for trying something new. I don't want her afraid to create something or show you what she's made because she thinks she'll get in trouble for it. You don't want her targeting specific people, I get that. So tell her that she did well and maybe next time not to target Clint. Don't put her down from the start, trust me, that makes it worse."

Tony turned and left before Steve could reply.

"Clint, I'm going out to the barn to mess with your tractor," announced Tony. "Emmy, you want to stay in here with Papa or come with me to the barn?"

Emmy thought about it, then pointed at Clint with a smile.

"Okay," said Tony, kissing the top of her head as he passed. "You know where I'll be if you need me."

Shortly after Tony disappeared into the snow, Laura and Maria Hill who had arrived an hour before entered the kitchen, chatting and laughing. Emmy tensed at the sight of them and shied closer to Clint, who was leaning against the counter next to her, talking to Steve who had returned to the table to eat a bowl of cereal.

"Morning handsome," said Laura, walking over and kissing Clint, not noticing the way Emmy crawled behind her husband in fear. "Any news?"

"Hey beautiful," grinned Clint. "I missed you."

"It's only been an hour," laughed Laura.

"And I missed you."

Laura laughed but stopped short when Clint stiffened and pushed her back slightly. Clint turned and picked up Emmy, who was shaking and breathing quickly.

"Laur, I need you to take Hill and leave the room," said Clint calmly. "Go get Tony, he's in the barn. Tell him Emmy's having a panic attack."

Quickly but calmly Clint walked over to Steve and handed him his daughter.

"She really doesn't do well with women," said Clint. "Normally I'd tell you to take her to somewhere she feels safe like her bedroom but she doesn't know this place, doesn't have her dog or blanket. So I'm going to go grab Bruce and Thor and have Nat watch the door and we're going to go to your room, put in that talking fox movie she likes so much, and wait the attack out."

"Sounds like a plan," said Steve, rocking Emmy, who was shaking violently and crying.

It took them five minutes to assemble on Tony and Steve's bed, Emmy sandwiched between her fathers and surrounded by the rest of her family, all of them laughing softly and commenting on how a fox and a chicken wouldn't be friends. Slowly but surely, Emmy calmed down, though she didn't fully relax. When the movie ended, Clint put in another one, this time with talking lions and circles of life. Natasha ventured onto the bed and when all Emmy did was look at her for a moment before turning her attention back to the screen, she took it as a good sign.

"Steve," said Natasha softly.

"Hm?" hummed Steve.

"Fury has some intel and wants you, Hill, Bruce, and me ready to go by lunch," said Natasha softly.

"That's an hour!" said Steve. "I can't leave right now. Emmy needs me."

"Cap," said Tony softly, looking up at him. "Just go. Emmy needs you to go get the basta- guys – who did this. The faster you do that, the faster we can go home."

"You really think it's a good idea to leave after that panic attack?" said Steve skeptically.

"That was triggered because a female Emmy doesn't know got into her personal space too quickly and stayed too long on top of having a really rough day and night before," said Tony reasonably. "We all have our bad days, you know that. Hell, you've done this exact same thing with me, watching mindless movies, when I'm having a hard time keeping out of my head. Clint and Thor are staying. We'll be fine and you'll be helping get us home."

Steve sighed. He knew his husband had a point but he didn't want to leave.

"Emmy," said Steve softly.

Emmy looked up at him from her spot nestled between Tony and him, her purple eyes bright and wide with emotions brimming under the surface.

"Sweetie, I have to go on a little trip," said Steve slowly. "So I won't see you for a few days. Will you be good for Daddy while I'm gone?"

Emmy nodded, brow furrowed in confusion.

"That's my princess," praised Steve, softly kissing her hair before kissing Tony above her. "I'm going to talk to Laura before heading out. She needs to know this wasn't her fault. Be good, Tony."

"I'm always good," said Tony with a grin before his face became serious. "Come back."

"Always."

And that was it. They never said goodbye or I love you or anything like that because those things seemed so final and if they ended with that then what reason did they have for returning? Tony always insisted on Steve coming back, still afraid years later of being left alone again. Steve, for his part, promised to always come back, still haunted by the times that wasn't possible and vowing to make it different.

When Natasha came back and grabbed Bruce from the pile of humans and they heard the front door shut followed by a series of engines starting and cars rumbling away, Emmy sat up and looked around the room in surprise.

"What's up, Em?" asked Tony.

Emmy kept looking around the room as if she had lost something, then she scrambled off the bed and went to the bathroom before pointing at the closet for Tony to check; she didn't like closets. Tony obligingly got up and looked in the closet.

"Nope, nothing there, Ducky," said Tony.

Emmy tugged on Clint's pant leg until the archer rolled out of bed. Promptly, Emmy took Clint's calloused fingers in her own little hand and Tony's scarred fingers in her other and dragged them out of the room.

"What's she looking for?" asked Clint over the young girls head.

"Hell if I know," said Tony. "I'm just glad she's walking around instead of hiding in the room. That's a big step."

"True," said Clint.

They searched the entire house, every room and closet, but when they approached the door leading outside, Tony drew the line.

"Nope, not going out there," said Tony, steering the toddler back towards the couch. "It's too cold and you're not wearing a jacket, missy."

Emmy hadn't lost that confused look yet and stared up at Tony with her eyes almost comically wide.

"Papa?" said Emmy, pointing towards the door.

Tony was caught between wanting to shout with excitement and let his heart break at how sad she sounded.

"Papa had to go to work with Aunt Natasha and Uncle Bruce, remember?" explained Tony.

Emmy frowned.

"He'll be back soon," said Tony. "Until then, do you want to take apart the toaster with me and I can show you how to make it burn patterns in the bread?"

 ***This is the point in time where I admit to how exhausted I am and just hope this makes sense. - Ari**


	9. Cold

Tony woke up with a sneeze and instantly regretted his life choices because his head hurt and his throat ached in a way that just screamed that he was about to get hit with the worst cold of his life. Had Steve been there, he would have teased him about it but he wasn't, he was still tracking down those responsible for the failed kidnapping. After almost a week, he was a lot closer but that still meant he was on the move and it was starting to take its toll on both his husband and daughter.

"Daddy," whispered Emmy, pulling lightly on the covers of the bed, not quite tall enough to climb on but clearly wanting attention. "Daddy."

Tony groaned, his head pounding even at that slight sound of his daughters voice. His limbs ached, his head pounded, the room refused to stay still long enough for him to get his bearings, it was just too much. He shut his eyes and ground his palms into them as if that would help everything settle to a more bearable level. It didn't do a thing.

Emmy ran out of the room when she didn't get an answer from her father and searched for someone who was big enough to get his attention. She couldn't find anyone in the house and almost panicked until she remembered that they had all gone to the nearby town for shopping. Just as Emmy was starting to wonder how on earth she was going to get her fathers attention, the door opened, letting in a gust of cold air, snow, and Natasha.

"Hello," said Natasha when she shut the door, eyeing the youngest member of her adopted family, not entirely sure how the girl would react. "Your Papa is still on the trip with Uncle Bruce. I hurt my head and needed a break."

Emmy didn't say anything, just stared up at Natasha.

"So, where is everyone?" asked Natasha after a minute.

Emmy looked thoughtful, as if she were trying to decide how much she trusted Natasha, until she finally came to a decision. She walked up to the assassin, took her hand, turned, and started walking back to the bedroom that held her father. Natasha hardly dared to breathe as she followed the toddler; Emmy had never touched her before. Emmy, for her part, seemed to be just as unsure as Natasha, almost as if she were waiting for the other woman to change her mind and pull away or worse. But she didn't and they made it to the room without incident.

When Natasha spotted Tony on the bed, flushed and groaning softly to himself, she knew exactly what was wrong. Tony rarely got sick but when he did, he committed with a gusto most only dreamed of having towards anything. No one was surprised, Tony Stark-Rogers did nothing in halves, but it was still unfortunate that he couldn't make an exception for this.

"Tones," said Natasha softly, sitting on the edge of the bed and placing her hand on Tony's forehead, cringing at how warm it was. "What hurts?"

"Everything," coughed Tony, leaning into Natasha's cool hand. "I'm dying."

"I doubt that," said Natasha drily, a small smile tugging at her lips. "But you are well on your way to pneumonia if that cough is any indication. I'll call the others so they can pick some stuff up while they're out and make you some tea. Stay here."

"I'm too weak to move anyway."

"Baby."

Emmy watched from the ground, very unhappy at still being ignored.

"Daddy," said Emmy, crossing her arms.

"Daddy's sick," said Natasha. "Would you like to help me make some tea?"

Natasha held out a hand to the young girl who took a step back the instant the woman had moved her hand, clearly afraid of being hit.

"Emmy," said Natasha, sitting on the ground in front of the little girl, back to the bed. "I'm going to tell you something and I need you to listen. I am a very dangerous person but I promise you that I will never hurt you and I will hurt anyone who tries to hurt you. You don't have to believe me right now, I know you won't, but I will keep telling you as much as you want, as often as you need, until you know it's true."

Emmy didn't make eye contact with Natasha but the assassin knew she was listening; the little girl was always listening.

"I'm going to put you on the bed with your Daddy, okay?" said Natasha.

She waited with her hands out a bit until Emmy gave a tiny nod, then lifted the light girl onto the bed. Instantly, Emmy wriggled away from Natasha and to the safety of her fathers side.

"Hey Ducky," said Tony, his voice rough. "You being good for Auntie Natasha?"

The way Emmy looked at him, her eyes so wide and sad, made him remember that one day, the one he had put as far from his mind as possible, the one that – while necessary for his life to have turned out the way it did – was still too painful for him to really think about.

 _He was in the workshop, again, working for longer than he could remember, again, when he finally surfaced for more coffee._

 _"_ _Pull up my calendar, J," said Tony while he waited for the coffee machine to brew his coffee._

 _"_ _Right away, sir," said JARVIS._

 _The calendar pulled up, lighting up with different colored labels. It was a color coding system that combined what Pepper thought was important and what he deemed as important and then combined them. Anything personal were different shades of purple, Avengers business stayed different shades of red, Stark Industries business had claimed all the blues, and everything else was any variation of orange. On the calendar there was only one thing, it was bright purple and flashing. Flashing was never good._

 _"_ _Um, JARVIS?" said Tony. "Why is there a flashing purple thing that you didn't remind me of?"_

 _"_ _Miss Potts refused to let me remind you," said JARVIS, sounding upset. "She wanted you to remember on your own."_

 _"_ _So what is the purple thing?" asked Tony, his stomach dropping._

 _"_ _It is dinner with Miss Potts," said Tony. "You missed it."_

 _"_ _Damn," said Tony. "Okay well, where did she go? I can go apologize and-"_

 _"_ _She moved out," said JARVIS._

 _"_ _That's not possible," said Tony with a scoff. "She has all of her things in our apartment. It would take her ages to move it all out. Besides, it's just a dinner."_

 _"_ _She had everything packed and ready to go for several weeks," said JARVIS, his voice regretful. "Dinner was the final straw."_

 _"_ _She, she what?" said Tony. "She….left?"_

 _"_ _Yes."_

 _For several hours, Tony wandered around the tower, almost in a daze. He wasn't trying to find Pepper, exactly. He knew they were having some issues, knew she didn't like his Avengers projects, didn't like him dropping everything for a call to assemble, missing meetings and dates, didn't like that he had converted two floors into one giant one with rooms for all his teammates to stay plus an open invitation for them to go. There was a lot she didn't like but Tony hadn't thought that she would, that she would leave. He thought she would at least talk to him first, she knew how he was with people leaving._

 _Not good. Not good at all. Tony didn't do well with people leaving._

 _"_ _Tony, you okay?" asked Clint._

 _"_ _Yeah," said Tony, his voice dull. "Why?"_

 _"_ _Because you're currently laying in the middle of the pit, watching The Fellowship of the Ring extended edition," said Clint. "That's your sulking movie."_

 _"_ _I like the part where Frodo gets stabbed," said Tony softly. "I know how he feels."_

 _"_ _JARVIS?" asked Clint, settling down next to Tony in the sunken pit that was filled with pillows and blankets, a huge screen on the ceiling so they could lay down while watching movies together._

 _"_ _Miss Potts moved out without notice this evening," said JARVIS, the disdain for his creators former girlfriend clear in his voice._

 _"_ _Code Gold," said Clint._

 _"_ _Noted."_

 _Within ten minutes, all of the Avengers were in the pit, watching Lord of the Rings and eating white chocolate covered popcorn._

 _"_ _You guys should go," whispered Tony as the third movie began._

 _"_ _No thanks," said Steve, his chest rumbling pleasantly under Tony's head._

 _"_ _Seriously," said Tony._

 _"_ _Shut up, this is my favorite part," said Natasha._

 _"_ _We're not going anywhere," whispered Bruce._

 _"_ _That means you too, Natasha," said Clint. "No killing anyone's ex girlfriend."_

 _"_ _Spoil sport," grumbled Natasha, though she curled in closer to Tony's left side, being sure that she was the one who blocked his weaker side._

 _They stayed like that the entire night, watching movie after movie that was on Tony's playlist for when he was upset. All of them were action movies because if he was upset he wanted to watch things blow up. The billionaire was tense, waiting for one of them to leave, to wander off, get bored or have something else they needed to do, but none of them ever did. It was one of the worst nights in Tony's life but also one of the best because it was the night Pepper had walked out on him but it was also the night he had realized that the Avengers had transformed from just a team he was on to a family he was a part of._

"I'm leaving this right here," said Natasha, setting down a steaming mug on the bedside table. "You're going to drink it when it's cooler. Do you understand?"

Tony nodded. Emmy studied him a bit longer before cautiously, as if she was afraid of being rejected, leaning over and kissing Tony's forehead like he had done to her every night before she fell asleep and every time he was going to work. A huge smile broke over Tony's face.

"Thank you, Emmy," said Tony. "Now I need to get some sleep or Papa is going to be very disappointed in me. Can you go with Auntie Natasha for a while? Please?"

Emmy nodded and wriggled off the bed. Natasha waited until Emmy was firmly on the ground before she started walking out of the room, instructing Tony to call if he needed anything.

In the living room, Emmy sat on the floor and started taking apart the lamp. She had it apart in seconds; she had become very good at taking things apart, mainly because Steve didn't mind and Tony only encouraged her. She wasn't destructive, she just liked to see how it worked.

A knock sounded on the door. Emmy jumped up and ran to the door, hoping it would be her Papa coming home. However, she was still too small to reach the doorknob, so she waited not entirely patiently for Natasha to open the door. When she did, she found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.

"Come with us quietly and no one gets hurt," said the man. "Say a word and I'll shoot the kid."

 ***I cut my hand with a knife. Always - Ari**


	10. Reunited (and it feels so good)

"Like hell," said Natasha, already disarming the man and sweeping Emmy up as she did.

She slammed the door shut and pushed the button next to it that looked suspiciously like a decorative knot of wood. Instantly all of the windows slammed shut with reinforced metal, thick enough to buy them time but not enough to hold anyone with a sense of determination at bay for long. Luckily, Natasha didn't need long.

"Stark," said Natasha, running back to Tony's room, still holding Emmy. "We've got company."

"Well tell them now's not a good time," grumbled Tony. "They can feel free to reschedule a time to attack with Pepper but right now I'm sick and we're probably outnumbered."

"Tell them yourself," replied Natasha, setting Emmy on the bed before rounding the bed and helping Tony sit up and put on socks. "You have the suit?"

"No," said Tony, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs out as best he could, knowing he needed to be functional now and could go back to being sick later.

"We've got about four more minutes before they break through the defenses," said Natasha, throwing two shoes and a jacket at Tony. "Clint will already know about the attack, triggering the defenses would have sent him a message. He knows where to meet us. Thor will probably be getting his family to safety. We just need to meet up with them. Can you stand?"

Tony nodded and shoved off the bed, swaying slightly before settling by sheer force of will. Natasha nodded, threw on a spare coat of Steve's, and picked Emmy back up before leading the way out of the bedroom and into the bathroom down the hall.

"Seriously?" said Tony, leaning against the door, panting while Natasha forced the tank of the toilet open to reveal a tunnel.

"Get in, Stark," said Natasha, stepping back.

It wasn't much of an entrance and you would have to know it was there to find it, but Tony still didn't look forward to crawling in. He wasn't a fan of enclosed spaces he didn't know. Still, as yet another bang echoed through the house, he scrambled into the tunnel and crawled along. After about thirty feet, the tunnel opened to a much more spacious area where two normal sized people could walk comfortably or one abnormally larger person would walk a bit hunched over.

"This goes on for about two miles," said Natasha.

"I want one of these," said Tony, his breathing short, hand against the wall to steady himself, but forcing himself to move at a decent pace.

"I'll remind you later to build one," said Natasha. "How you doing, Emmy?"

Emmy looked up at Natasha, uncomfortably close to the assassin but not protesting like Natasha had expected. Indeed, when Natasha tried to set her down so she could walk (which would slow progress but probably make Emmy calmer) the girl clutched the jacket Natasha was wearing tightly, unwilling to be moved away.

"Okay, I'll carry you," said Natasha calmly. "Stark, your daughter is letting me carry her."

"Yes well, she likes you," said Tony with a sneeze.

"Also you're right next to me so she can see you."

"She likes you, Tasha. Trust me. She asks about you whenever you're not around."

"That's a lie."

"Is not."

"Is too. She doesn't talk. The only two words she says are Daddy and Papa. She can't ask about me if she doesn't talk."

"She signs," replied Tony. "Plus, she doesn't need words, I understand her just fine. And I know she likes you."

"She tolerates me. Besides, I'm a bit worried about her separation anxiety. She won't actually let me put her down. I tried. She can't go from not letting me touch her to not letting me put her down. It's not natural."

"Sure she can," said Tony. He knew what Natasha was doing and was thankful for it; he needed the distraction of her conversation in order to convince his body to keep moving forward. "I wasn't kidding when I said she likes you. She just doesn't like people touching her without her permission, especially women. She's afraid, that doesn't mean she doesn't want to have that physical contact. Nat, she's been deprived of physical contact for years and when she finally lets herself have it with a new person, she just wants to make up for lost time. Give it a bit and if she doesn't ease off then I'll be worried too."

Natasha looked down at the little bundle in her arms and over to the man stumbling next to her who had become like a brother to her over the years.

"She's like you in a lot more ways than I expected," stated Natasha. "And you're a lot better at this parent thing than you know."

"Am I dying?" asked Tony. "You're being nice to me. I must be dying. Oh no! Tell Steve I love him. This isn't how I wanted to go, I always thought there would be mind blowing sex involved and probably fire and a mad robot AI out to get me, but I suppose this will have to do."

"You're such a drama queen," said Clint, trotting up to the group with a tight grin, eyes betraying his worry.

Emmy reached out her arms to Clint the instant she saw him.

"Hey, princess," said Clint, scooping Emmy into his arms, putting his own stocking cap on her head to ward off the chill of the tunnel. "How're things at the house?"

"Same guys from before, I think," said Natasha, lifting Tony's arm over her shoulder and helping him stumble along the tunnel faster. "Everyone else?"

"At Laura's moms," said Clint. "Thor's going to meet us at the Tower after Bruce gets Laura's moms to stand guard."

"We're going to the Tower?" asked Tony, looking up, eyes glassy with fever. "I thought that was a bad idea, that's why we didn't do it before."

"Yeah well they found the farm, so we've got little choice," said Clint. "The Tower is better equipped for an attack."

"Where's Steve?" asked Natasha softly.

"He wasn't far out of town when we got your call. He is probably waiting with a car at the entrance."

Natasha nodded and they quit talking for a time, moving as fast as the sick billionaire could manage, which was faster than he should have been capable of, but they were also dealing with the man who built himself a new element while dying, a suit of armor and arc reactor out of scraps in a cave, and single handedly took out a terrorist threat with next to no sleep in his system. They had long ago learned to stop underestimating Tony.

When they emerged from the tunnel, they found that Clint was correct, Steve was leaning against the hood of a black car. He hurried over to them and simply picked his husband up and carried him the rest of the way to the car. Natasha got into the drivers seat, Clint took shotgun, and passed Emmy back to Steve once the soldier had settled Tony. They took off.

"Papa," said Emmy contentedly smiling up at Steve.

"Hey, baby girl," said Steve with a huge smile. "I missed you. Did you take good care of Daddy while I was away?"

Emmy nodded before hugging Steve, small arms almost reaching all the way around his neck.

"Missed you, Steve," mumbled Tony, mostly asleep, leaning into Steve's side. "Don't leave."

"I missed you too, sweetheart," said Steve, kissing the top of Tony's sweaty hair.

"Everyone always leaves."

"We won't," said Steve patiently. Tony always got clingy and insecure when he was sick, his fears of being alone coming out to play.

"Someone tried to take her again," said Tony.

"I know."

"Papa," said Emmy, tugging on Steve's shirt to get his attention again.

"Yes darling?"

Emmy began signing about her week, all of the things she had taken apart and made. Steve watched, one arm firmly around his sleeping husbands shoulders, holding him close, the other around Emmy's waist to keep her balanced in the middle on his lap. He knew that she should be buckled in, but in the event of an accident, her small body stood a better chance at surviving the impact in his arms than buckled to a seat, quite simply because she was so tiny.

Eventually, Emmy had enough of signing to Steve and looked at him expectantly.

"What?" asked Steve, not understanding why she had stopped signing.

Emmy gestured to him.

"Your turn," muttered Tony, rolling his head further into Steve's warmth.

"Oh," said Steve with a sheepish grin. "Um, I went on a trip with your Aunt Natasha and Uncle Bruce. We traveled around a bit, trying to find the people who took us from the park. That chase brought me back near town when they came to get you. Now we're here. That's it."

"We're stopping at a SHIELD base in about ten minutes," said Natasha. "They'll have medical for Tony and we can contact the others. Hopefully just spend an hour or two there, then we can fly home."

"Sounds good," said Steve.

When they reached the base, Clint disappeared immediately to contact his wife and kids and make sure they were safe. Natasha helped Steve get Tony to medical before she too went to find out what was happening. Steve stayed in the room with Tony while Emmy sat on his lap, content to look around and point to things for him to explain. That seemed to be her favorite game, to point and wait for someone to tell her what it was. Sometimes Steve thought she was just doing it to see if it was allowed.

"That's an IV," said Steve. "It'll probably end up in Daddy's arm to help him get better. Daddy doesn't like them very much. But I'm sure he's going to be good to show you how easy it is."

"You're the devil," groaned Tony.

"No, I'm Captain America," said Steve with a grin.

"Same thing in most countries."

Before Steve could respond, the doctor entered with a tall, imposing figure and slim, just as lethal figure behind him like mismatched shadows.

"Mr. Stark, I hear you have gotten yourself rather sick" said Dr. Dray, one of the four approved doctors on Tony's very particular list.

"Steve, I'm going to stay here and debrief Tony after he gets the proper medication," said Natasha. "You go with Bucky and get showered, changed, and ready to go."

"You'll be okay?" asked Steve, standing and talking to Tony.

"Go shower," said Tony, waving his hand vaguely. "Nat's got it."

"Love you," said Steve, kissing Tony's warm forehead before following his best friend out.

Down several halls and two left turns later, Steve ended up in Bucky's quarters.

"So this is the girl you told me about?" said Bucky, eying Emmy, who was looking back at him just as curiously.

"Yes, this is Emmy," said Steve.

"She doesn't look like you," stated Bucky, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

"Yes well, she's adopted, so that would explain it," said Steve. "Emmy, this is Bucky. He's my best friend."

Emmy looked between the two but didn't say a word.

"Quite the chatter box," said Bucky with a smirk.

"Emmy, I have to go shower and change. Will you be okay here with Bucky?"

Emmy studied Bucky for another moment, assessing him, before nodding. Steve kissed the top of her head before setting her down and marching into Bucky's attached bathroom, already knowing where everything was from the many times he had visited.

Bucky and Emmy stared at each other for several long minutes before Emmy marched right up to Bucky. Bucky backed away, or tried to but he was already at the wall; he didn't know how to handle a child and if this one was anything like her fathers, she was going to be a handful.

Emmy pointed at Bucky's metal arm.

"It's an arm kid," said Bucky, a bit defensively. "It's rude to point."

Emmy made grabbing motions with her small hands, clearly wanting to see it. With a sigh, Bucky sat on the ground. Emmy looked at him for a short moment before running her hands down his mechanical arm. She poked at the joints, not the least bit frightened by something that could easily crush her and had killed hundreds.

"Shit, you really are Starks kid," said Bucky softly.

Emmy looked up at him with her wide eyes, clearly surprised he had spoken to her. She backed up rapidly, looking around as if she had just realized she was alone with him. Then she settled when he didn't make a move. She slowly started moving back towards him and was even with the door when it burst open, a young SHIELD agent walking in and almost tripping over Emmy.

"Agent Romanoff wanted me to tell you that they are going to be staying the night to give Mr. Stark a bit more time for the medication to kick in," said the woman.

Emmy ran and hid under Bucky's bed.

"Thank you, Agent Prism," said Bucky gruffly. "And next time knock."

The agent nodded and left.

"Wanna tell me what that was about?" asked Bucky, laying on his stomach, head resting on crossed arms under the bed where he could see Emmy cowering in the corner.

Emmy didn't respond.

"Okay," said Bucky. "I'll uh, just leave you to it I guess."

The assassin sat back on the floor, metal fingers dilbrately placed under the bed in case Emmy wanted to look at them. If there was one thing Bucky understood, it was needing time to regroup after a minor setback. From what Steve had told him, Emmy was brilliant but had a rough past.

Steve emerged from the bathroom, wearing a spare shirt and sweatpants of Bucky's and looked around the room.

"I think your kid's broke," said Bucky.

"Bucky-" began Steve, not liking his best friend commenting on his daughter like that; it's not like any of them had any room to speak.

"I'm pretty sure they're supposed to talk," continued Bucky. "This one doesn't say a word. Also, Agent Prism came in and scared the girl. The brat is hiding under the bed. Now that's you're out of the shower, I'm going to run an errand. Bye."

Before Steve could process the rapid turn of events, Bucky was already out of the room and down the hall, off to find Coulson's office and forge his signature on the pink slip for Agent Prism. After all, no one scared his niece.


	11. Fluffy Explosions

It was far too early for anyone besides his erratic husband to be awake yet Steve found himself sitting on the floor of Bucky's small sitting room with Emmy, his husband fast asleep in the bedroom (having escaped from medical hours before). Emmy had zero interest in sleeping, it turned out, this newest disturbance to her already wrecked sleeping schedule making it impossible for her to settle down. It wasn't as if she was running around and making a mess, because she wasn't, she just wouldn't sleep and no amount of coaxing by Steve would get her to try.

"Emmy, I'm really tired baby," said Steve, his voice rough with sleep deprivation. "Please, will you at least try to sleep for me?"

Emmy shook her head and handed him a tablet before sitting on his lap and waiting to be read to like they always did at home.

"Baby, JARVIS isn't in this tablet," said Steve. "And Daddy's asleep so he can't access him, so both Daddy and Bucky and JARVIS are all asleep, just like we should be. Please."

Emmy shook her head and pulled Bucky's brush out of the pile of things she had collected over the time she had spent in the room. She climbed onto Steve's shoulder and began to brush his hair. Steve leaned back against the couch, resigned to being awake with his daughter. He knew it wasn't her fault but that didn't make him any less exhausted. The soothing strokes of the brush helped to lull his eyes closed and Emmy was so quiet that it didn't help his task to stay awake.

When Bucky wandered in a half hour later, he found Steve fast asleep, still propped up against the couch with several ribbons in his hair and Emmy on the couch trying to get the tablet to pull up a story, which was much more difficult than it should have been because she couldn't read.

"Did you keep Steve up past his bedtime, kid?" asked Bucky softly, sitting next to Emmy on the couch.

Emmy nodded but didn't look up, having clearly decided Bucky wasn't a threat and more interested in getting a book up so Papa could read it to her.

"If you're going to take apart my tablet I'm not sure you're doing it right," said Bucky.

Emmy looked up at Bucky, bags under her vibrant eyes, and made the sign for book, pointing at the tablet, visibly upset.

"That's a tablet, not a book, kid."

Emmy did the sign again, a single tear rolling down her left cheek.

"Um, you want to read a book?" said Bucky, panicking a bit at the sign of tears; he didn't know how to deal with crying.

Emmy nodded.

"Okay," said Bucky, snatching the tablet up. "Don't go crying. I'll get you a book. Just a second. How about War and Peace?"

Emmy wrinkled her nose.

"Picky little shrimp, aren't you? Okay, what about some Dr. Seuss? Kids like that shit, right?"

Bucky pulled up a Dr. Seuss book at random and handed the tablet back to Emmy. Emmy looked at it with a smile, then handed it back to Bucky and wormed her way under his real arm and stared expectantly up at him.

"Um," said Bucky, out of his depth. "I gave you the book. Now what do you want? No, I don't cuddle. So stop. Down kid. Heel."

Emmy cocked her head to the side in question, one soft red eyebrow going up. Bucky sighed.

"You learned that look from Steve, didn't you?" said Bucky. "Fine. But just this once. And if anyone ever asks, I'm telling them you ambushed me with tears before my first cup of coffee, got it?"

Emmy pointed back at the screen and leaned into Bucky's side, thumb absently going into her mouth.

"Don't do that," said Bucky, tugging the thumb out. "I was real happy and carefree and young, and I lived in a place called the Valley of Vung…."

The story didn't put Emmy to sleep. Neither did the one after that or the one after that one. Steve woke up during the fourth story to find Bucky doing all the voices and Emmy giggling from her perch on his shoulders where she was braiding his hair.

"You never did the voices when you read to me," said Steve with a yawn, smirking over his shoulder at his long time best friend.

"I never read to you, you dope," said Bucky.

"Nice hair."

"You too."

Steve blinked in surprise because getting up to go to the bathroom and check himself out in the mirror.

Bucky reached up and gently brought Emmy down over his shoulder and holding her in front of him under her arms so her legs dangled a bit.

"Now listen here, kid," said Bucky, his face serious but eyes sparkling with mirth. "Just because I read you stories and let you braid my hair doesn't mean we're going to cuddle again, got it? I'm a dangerous assassin, I've killed hundreds of people, and I do not cuddle. Understand?"

Emmy shook her head with a grin.

"Steve, I thought you said your kid was smart," whined Bucky.

"She is."

"Then why doesn't she get that I'm dangerous?"

"I think she'd take you a bit more seriously if you hadn't just let her braid your hair while reading her a story. That's not a very dangerous activity."

"Fine. I'm taking her to the gun range. She'll see how dangerous I am then."

"You can't take a four year old to the gun range," said Steve.

"Sure you can," said Clint, popping out of the vent to land lightly on the ground. "I wasn't much older when I started. Emmy, would you want to go with Uncle Bucky to the gun range?"

"I'm not her uncle," growled Bucky as Emmy nodded, still dangling from Bucky's arms. "I'm not your uncle, kid. Steve is not my brother and Tony is certainly not my brother. I killed his parents! Understand? I am not a cuddly, uncle type guy."

Emmy giggled and squirmed until Bucky set her on the couch next to him. Instantly, she climbed back onto Bucky's lap and put her hand on his face.

A blow shook the entire building, knocking everyone to the ground.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" yelled Clint as he coughed through the dust. "Who the hell are these guys?!"

"Pretty sure they're an extension of Hydra," said Steve, as he stumbled to his feet to check on his husband.

Bucky looked down at Emmy, who was cradled against his chest, protected from debris by his metal arm. She looked back up at him, utterly unafraid, as if that explosion had just been a fun game and she was waiting for the next fun thing Bucky would come up with.

"Steve, your kid's weird!" yelled Bucky.


	12. The Plan

"I already called my suit," said Tony, leaning against the wall, breathing deeply. "Emmy needs to get somewhere safe."

"The take her," said Bucky, holding Emmy out to him.

The little girl giggled and kicked her legs in excitement. She was having a lot of fun, surrounded by her Dad, Papa, Uncle Bucky and Uncle Clint. The explosions which had been sounding for the last few minutes reminded her of home in Daddy's lab. It wasn't home, but it was close.

"We need a plan," said Steve, taking Emmy from Bucky, allowing the girl to root in his jacket until she found one of his many handkerchiefs and waved it around.

"Papa!" said Emmy, tugging Steve's shirt and waving the white cloth in front of his face.

"Yes, it's very nice, baby," said Steve. "Plan. We don't know who exactly we're dealing with. We need to regroup. They're hitting us where it hurts the most."

"Look, I'll take Emmy and slip underground," said Clint, rubbing his face. "You guys distract them long enough to give us a head start. We'll meet back up when in a few hours."

"Bucky should take her," said Steve.

"She knows Clint better," said Tony.

"Yeah, but Bucky has more experience disappearing without a trace. Clint's good, but we need the best."

"Rude," grumbled Clint.

"Emmy, who do you want to hang out with for the next few hours?" said Tony, always wanting to keep his daughter in the loop. He understood what it was like to be young but intelligent and everyone always talking over you. "Uncle Clint or Uncle Bucky?"

"Daddy!" said Emmy, pointing at Tony. "Daddy! Papa!"

"No," said Steve. "Daddy and I have to work for a bit. You need to go with Uncle Bucky or Uncle Clint."

Emmy frowned and shook her head.

"Daddy. Papa."

"I'm sorry baby, but that's not an option."

Emmy pouted, clearly not liking what was happening. The adults were talking over her again but she didn't mind, she leaned against Steve's chest, twisting the handkerchief around in her little hands.

"Steve, I'll take her," said Bucky with a sigh. "If it is Hydra, I don't think I'm ready to take them on without reverting. She'll be safe."

"You let anything happen to her and I swear I will not be very happy and the last time I was very unhappy I blew up an entire terrorist camp with scraps. Do you understand me?" said Tony quietly.

"Got it," said Bucky, biting back a snarky comment because honestly, that was the same thing he would have said if he had a daughter.

Steve handed Emmy over to Bucky.

"Papa?" said Emmy, reaching out to Steve.

"Honey, you're going to have to go with Bucky for a bit," said Steve, cupping Emmy's face with one of his large hands. "We'll see you in a few hours, understand? Can you be a big girl and be good for Uncle Bucky just like you are when Uncle Clint or Uncle Bruce watch you?"

Emmy nodded, still twisting the handkerchief in her hands.

"Good girl. I love you."

With their customary kisses to the forehead, Bucky took Emmy out through the back window. Emmy watched sadly over the assassins shoulder but didn't make any sound of complaint.

-Winging It-

"Alright kid," said Bucky after several hours. "We're going to stay right here until one of those people you call family show up. This is our go to meeting spot, not that we've ever used it before."

Emmy looked around the small diner. She liked it, it reminded her of the diner Papa had taken her shortly after they got her from the home. Daddy said Papa liked diners because it reminded him of his old home, Papa said Daddy liked diners because they served unhealthy foods. Emmy liked them because whenever they went, she got a strawberry milkshake.

"What can I get you?" asked a young woman with short black hair, leaning over the table close to Emmy to get a better look at the young girl. She had a kind smile and soft brown eyes.

 _"_ _Look!" squealed Emmy, holding up a small remote control to a car. "I made it better!"_

 _"_ _That's stupid," said Ty, a six year old boy with more freckles than brain cells. "You're stupid. Miss Sunset! Emmaline broke another toy!"_

 _"_ _Did not!" shouted Emmy._

 _Emmy hadn't been at the home more than a week and already every toy that had been broken or that she decided to play with had been thrown back at her in the form of punishment._

 _"_ _Emmaline!" screeched Mrs. Sunset, marching into the room, face flushed with fury and sun from where she had been outside with the other children._

 _"_ _I didn't break it!" said Emmy. "I made it better."_

 _"_ _You weren't this much trouble when your mother was around," growled Mrs. Sunset, yanking Emmy by the arm up the stairs faster than the girl could walk, causing her to trip and hit her shins. She hadn't quite mastered stairs because of her size and the quick pace only made it worse._

 _"_ _No!" cried Emmy, struggling when she saw where they were headed. "No! I'll be good!"_

 _"_ _Shut up, brat!"_

 _Mrs. Sunset threw Emmy into the closet, making the small girl hit the wall hard before she crumpled to the ground. Mrs. Sunset continued to yell but Emmy was too dazed to really follow. All she knew was that she was a bad girl, that she wouldn't get punished if she would just be good, shut up, and stop breaking things. There was more hitting then and yelling and by the time it was over, Mrs. Sunset locked the door and walked away, leaving Emmy alone in the dark, in pain and wondering why her mother had left._

"Come on, come back," said Bucky, his voice floating and far away.

Emmy blinked up at him, the diner coming back into focus around her. She noticed that they were alone, the lady with black hair had left, and she was sitting on the table, legs dangling off edge, facing Bucky, both of his hands bracing her.

"You with me kid?" said Bucky, back bent a bit so his eyes were level with Emmy.

Emmy blinked, hand clenching in her stolen handkerchief.

"Kid? Come on, Steve is going to kill me if he finds out I broke you. Say something! Wait, no, you don't talk. Okay, why don't you just nod or something?"

"Papa?" asked Emmy softly.

"There we go!" cheered Bucky, his face lighting up. "Say something else!"

"Daddy?" said Emmy, uncertain as to why Bucky wanted her to talk and not sure what to do about it.

"Alright, now you've exhausted your vocabulary. You okay? You're safe, you know that, right? That lady, whoever she was, can't hurt you anymore."

Emmy nodded, looking down at the handkerchief she had taken from Steve before they left. He always carried handkerchiefs around with him and this one still smelled like him.

"Papa," whimpered Emmy.

"I know kid," sighed Bucky, bringing the young girl in close to sit on his lap instead of the table, looking around for any sign that the others were coming. "He'll be here soon."


	13. Miscommunication

"Bucky," said Steve over the phone when Bucky answered after only one ring.

"Hey man," said Bucky, looking at his watch. "It's getting late."

"I know, is Emmy okay?"

"She's tired. I think she's sad-is that even possible for a human so small to get sad? She keeps sniffing though, so maybe she's not sad and just sick. I don't know. She doesn't talk! How the hell am I supposed to know if she's okay or not?"

"Give her the phone," said Tony, snatching Steve's cell out of his hand and putting it on speaker.

"What part of 'she doesn't talk' do you not get, Stark?" growled Bucky.

"Buck, please," said Steve, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Don't argue right now. Just put Emmy on the phone for a minute."

"Fine," grumbled Bucky as he looked down at the lapful of toddler he had. "Emmy, your fathers want to talk to you."

Emmy took the offered phone and put it right up to her ear.

"Hey Ducky," said Tony. "You giving Uncle Bucky hell?"

"Daddy!" squealed Emmy.

"Tony!" chastised Steve.

"What?" said Tony innocently.

"Daddy," repeated Emmy, clearly wanting her fathers attention again.

"Hey sweetie," said Steve.

"Papa!"

"Yeah," said Steve with a smile, never tiring of hearing her say his name. "Sorry we're so late, honey. Daddy and I got held up. But Uncle Thor is going to stop by soon to pick you up and bring you to us. So when he gets there I want you to be a good girl for him, understand?"

Emmy nodded, although she knew they couldn't see her.

"We'll see you soon, Ducky," said Tony. "I love you."

"I love you too," added Steve. "Now give the phone back to Uncle Bucky please."

Emmy handed the phone back up to Bucky with a smile, her purple eyes bright. Bucky took the phone and listened to Steve explain what was going to be happening as thunder started to roll in the background. Emmy went back to playing with the fork leftover from dinner. They were still at the diner but Emmy hadn't made a fuss all night, content to sit and color or play with the things on the table. Bucky was impressed because she was better behaved then most adults.

"Okay, yeah, I see him now," said Bucky, looking out the window as Thor approached. "I know, I got it. See you later."

He hung up the phone, picked up Emmy, threw some money on the table without actually counting it, and left the diner, ignoring the well wishes of the friendly waitress who had tried to flirt with him several times. Turned out that having a kid made him approachable.

"Greetings," boomed Thor, his red cape waving in the self-created wind. "I've come to collect Emmy."

"Don't drop her," was all Bucky said as he handed the girl over.

-Winging It-

"What do you mean you can't find him?" yelled Steve. "He went with one of you agents fifteen minutes ago!"

"Captain," said the young lady, looking at Steve as if he had grown two heads. "No one summoned Mr. Stark."

"Excuse me?"

"What did the agent look like?" said the young agent, her entire demeanor transforming from young and impressionable to all business in her suit. "Male or female? Height? Distinguishing features? Had you seen them before? What exactly did they say?"

"Male," said Steve, shocked. "About six foot. I hadn't seen him before but Tony seemed to know him. But that's not really saying much, Tony seems to know everyone."

"What did this agent say exactly?"

"He- he said, 'Mr. Stark, Agent Coulson needs to see you in the bull pen,'" said Steve. "He had a tattoo on his right hand. Blue, some kind of eye."

"We don't use the term bull pen," said the agent. "I'm going to find Agent Coulson. You stay here in case he comes back. I'll send Agent Barton to you. If anyone comes to talk to you who is not Agent Coulson or Agent Barton, keep them here under any means needed."

Before Steve could respond the agent left, leaving Steve all alone in the lab where he had been keeping Tony company on the helicarrier.

"Rhodey is going to kill me," groaned Steve, running a large hand down his face.

"Why?" asked Clint, walking into the room, his hair ruffled as if he had been asleep-which he probably had although he looked awake and alert. "What did you do to Tony this time?"

"We can't find him," admitted Steve, sitting heavily on the floor.

"Oh, is that all?" laughed Clint. "It's Tony, I'm sure he's just off seeking out a decent cup of coffee. It's a futile mission but if anyone's going to accomplish it, it's your husband. That man is insane."

"No Clint. Someone came in here about 15 minutes ago dressed as an agent and asked Tony to come with him to see Coulson. Just now another agent showed up and said Fury was going to call Tony soon and when I told her he was with that other agent she said that no one had summoned either of us yet. He's missing."

"They only have a 15 minute head start," said Clint, his entire body language going from relaxed but alert to tense and ready for action in an instant. "Tony's smart, he's not going without a fuss. He's not going to make a scene, he's going to put on a Broadway musical. We'd have heard them if anyone tried to take him forcefully."

"But Tony knew the guy!" insisted Steve. "He was familiar with him. If the guy drugged him, Tony wouldn't be alert enough to see it coming to stop it. He's still sick."

"That at least narrows it down. If Tony knew him then he has to work here. We can do a roll call."

"That won't work. Tony knows every single person on board. I swear, down to the laundry crew, he knows everyone. It'll take too long!"

"Well we have to do something. If you have a better idea, Cap, then now's the time to share with the class."

Steve huffed in irritation, worried about his missing husband, frustrated that there wasn't a better way to go about checking for him, but knowing Clint was right. The archer placed his hand on Steve's shoulder bracingly.

"We'll find him, Steve," said Clint.

-Winging It-

When Thor landed on the helicarrier with Emmy, an agent came right up to him. He was a young man, his uniform not fitting quite right.

"I'm supposed to take the child to Mr. Stark," said the agent.

"That's alright," said Thor with a smile, shifting Emmy – who had fallen asleep on the ride – to a more comfortable walking position. "Just tell me where he is and I'll bring the child to him."

"Captain Rogers has requested your presence, actually," said the agent, hands still extended to take Emmy from the god. "It's urgent. Mr. Stark in in the quinjet, ready to take the kid home. Mr. Rogers is staying here and needs your help in planning for the upcoming attack."

Thor still wasn't convinced that he shouldn't take Emmy to Tony first but when the agent persisted that the quinjet was just down the hall and Steve had been waiting for him for a while, Thor handed over the sleeping child and rushed off to Steve.

"Steve," boomed Thor, entering Steve and Tony's guest quarters a few minutes later. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

"That's fine, Thor," said Steve, not even pausing in his pacing when the god entered the room. "Where's Emmy?"

"With Tony. So what plans have you laid already?"

"What do you mean, she's with Tony?" asked Steve, turning on the spot and staring at Thor in shock. "You've seen Tony? When? Where?"

"An agent greeted me when I arrived and told me that Tony was waiting in a quinjet to take the child home and that you were waiting for me to lay battle plans. So I gave Emmy to him to bring to Tony before coming here to you."

"You gave her to an agent?" screamed Steve. "You gave my daughter to an agent? Tell me you knew the agent!"

"No," said Thor quietly, the sinking feeling in his stomach getting stronger by the second. "I admit, I didn't recognize the man but he assured me that Tony was waiting just down the hall."

"Great, Thor," growled Steve. "You probably just gave my daughter to the man who abducted my husband as well. Well done. What are you going to do, hand me over next?"

"Steve!" said Natasha sharply from the doorway.

"No, Natasha!" yelled Steve, rounding on the assassin. "He gave my daughter to a complete stranger! My husband is missing, probably at the hands of the same person HE handed Emmy over to! So don't you 'Steve' me!"

"I know that you're upset," said Natasha in her unwaveringly calm tone. "We all are. But if you don't calm down this instant I'm going to force you into the Hulk room and leave you there until this is sorted. Do you understand me?"

Steve glared at his teammates.

"Every moment we spend fighting is another moment they're missing," said Natasha quietly. "I know this is hard but we're better together and right now we need Captain America, not Steve."

With a shuddering sigh, the anger went out of Steve's shoulders and Captain America took over, pushing Steve to the side but not out of the way.

"Alright," said Steve. "Let's go get our family back."

 ***Greetings friends! I'm sorry to tell you that I am in the process of moving and don't know when I will have internet set up, so I am relying on friends and coffee shops until I figure it out. So if updates aren't as prompt as they have been, that's because I don't have access to internet not because I'm not writing. So here's to posting at earlier hours! Always-Ari**


	14. Falling Water

His head hurt worse than it had in a long time, leading him to believe that he had the worst hang over in a decade, possibly his life if the way the world around him rocked though his eyes were closed. He felt hot and cold at the same time, his limbs were shaking, and his thoughts were as foggy because his head just would not stop pounding. Hangovers were the worst.

Wait. Tony hadn't gotten drunk in almost five years. He still drank sometimes but he quit drinking to get drunk after that one Night, the Night they no longer spoke about – ever. Nothing would have made him break his streak because nothing would have been more important than the memory of the Morning After that Night. Nothing. So, not hung over.

Drugged.

Once his mind had settled on that thought, Tony knew it was true and the rest of his memory came surging back as if it had been waiting for that one word to trigger it. Agent John Ryan had knocked on the door and told him Agent needed to see him. He left Steve in the room to wait for Thor to return with Emmy and went with Agent Ryan. They were near the top deck of the helicarrier when Tony had to stop to cough. Before he could straighten, something pricked his neck and everything turned hazy quickly. Then he woke up with a head pounding, not hangover.

"Daddy?" came the soft whimper from several feet away.

Tony's eyes shot open and despite everything, he managed to catalog his surroundings in a flash. A cage, fairly good sized, was holding him, with glass walls thick enough to contain the Hulk and clearly a speaker system if he was able to hear outside of the room. He wasn't bound but there wasn't anything for him to play with either, which was annoying but not exactly surprising. Whoever these guys were, they were learning.

Then his eyes fell on Emmy, two feet outside of his cage in her own smaller one, one made out of metal.

"Emmy," breathed Tony, stumbling over to the wall closest to his daughter and pressing his hands against it in a vain attempt to get closer. "Ducky, are you okay?"

Emmy cocked her head to the side in that way that meant she didn't understand what he wanted.

"Are you okay?" asked Tony again, this time signing the words as well, glad he had taken the time to learn sign language when he discovered that Clint was mostly deaf.

Emmy nodded but made the sign for 'want' – which was one of Tony's favorite to do because he liked making inverted grabby hands – and then pointed at Tony, her lower lip going out in a pout.

"I know, Ducky," said Tony, tapping his temple as he spoke. "I'm sorry. I'll get you soon. I promise."

"I wouldn't make a promise you can't keep," said Agent Ryan, pushing out of the shadows.

"Look, let us both go and I promise I will kill you quickly," said Tony, standing up but leaning against the wall, trying to make it look casual as his legs shook under him.

"Again with the promises you just can't keep, Tony," laughed Ryan. "You don't get it, do you? I have the power here, not you."

"Your choice," shrugged Tony. "I was only offering the easy way out. If you want a slow and painful death, that's fine by me. Better, actually, because that's what I want for you as well."

"Then if I let you go you'd just kill me slowly and I'm not that stupid."

"Yeah, you clearly are because I wasn't talking about me. I would have killed you quickly. Now, though, I'm not going to stop my family from killing you in whatever way they wish and trust me when I say they are the most creative little bastards I've ever met. Trust me."

"Captain America is too virtuous to do anything like that."

"Normally I'd agree with you but I've also seen him angry. It's a beautiful thing, all righteous rage and freezing blue eyes and bulging muscles. But I digress. I was thinking more of the three master assassins I'm sure you've pissed off, the enormous green rage monster, and the god you've now earned on your tail. Not to mention Agent. I'm pretty sure he has a soft spot for me somewhere in that suit."

"You're mighty chatty for a man in a cage meant for something a lot stronger than you."

"What can I say, this isn't my first rodeo. You are one of the duller captors."

"Then how about I make this more interesting?"

Ryan unlocked Emmy's cage and pulled the cowering out by a bruising grip on her arm. Emmy froze, allowing Ryan to drag her to the front of the cage. Tony heard a sickening snap half a moment after Emmy began to flail unexpectedly. Ryan tossed Emmy to the ground when she got a good kick in. Instantly, Emmy ran to the keypad and jumped, punching in the numbers she had seen the mean man put in when he brought them here two hours before. It took two jumps but the door slid open just as Ryan regained his feet. Emmy ran inside to Tony when Ryan lunged at her. He hit the keypad, causing the door to close again, trapping father and daughter in.

"Daddy," sobbed Emmy.

Tony sat down, leaning against the glass wall, and pulled Emmy in close, both breathing hard.

"You little bitch," growled Ryan. "Fine. Be that way. Now instead of having the brat watch you drown, she'll get to drown with you."

Ryan hit another button and water began to fall in from the center of the ceiling at the rate of a garden hose.

"I'm going to go see about that group of idiots you call a family," said Ryan. "They won't find you alive because they won't make it that far."

With that, Ryan left the room.

"Daddy," bawled Emmy. "Daddy."

"I've got you, Em," said Tony softly, rocking Emmy, forcing down his panic at seeing his daughter in the hands of that man and from the water slowly filling the enclosure. "I'm right here. Daddy's right here. It's okay. It's okay."

Tony looked around the room, listening beyond the sound of running water and his crying girl in hopes of hearing something – anything – that would mean the Avengers were coming for them. But there was nothing. They were utterly alone and Tony couldn't see a way out. His mind was like a burning building in the center of a hurricane, chaotic, trapped, and doomed to end in destruction one way or the other. And none of that stopped the steadily falling water.

 ***Feedback welcome. Always- Ari**


	15. Distraction

"This is the place?" whispered Steve as he followed Natasha through the cool grey stone hall. "You sure?"

"Yes, now shut up," said Natasha, sharp eyes scanning nonstop. "Clint's already navigating through the vents, we just need to cause a distraction big enough to get all eyes on us."

"No problem."

"Oh? And what exactly did you have in mind Mr. Man With a Plan?"

"I married Tony Stark," said Steve with a grin that was almost feral. "If there is one thing I have learned from that man, it is not just how to make a scene, it's how to make a Broadway musical on opening night."

 _"_ _He's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…son of a bitch!"_

Natasha almost felt sorry for anyone standing in the way of that man. But then she remembered that Tony and Emmy were missing and that almost feeling went very far away to a place much closer to Budapest.

-Winging It-

"And then your Papa decided that the best way to get me to date him was to woo me old fashioned style," said Tony softly, standing in water near his belly button, leaning against the wall. "So he started making me food and bringing it down to the shop for me to eat. Every time he went on a mission he would come back with a present. The first time it was little stuffed duck with an Iron Man sweater. He got it as a joke and don't tell him this but I love the damn thing. It lives in my favorite tool box."

"Daddy," whimpered Emmy, kicking her little feet where they were getting wet in the water.

"I know, Ducky," sighed Tony. "I hate the water too. But just hold on because Papa and your crazy auntie and uncles are going to be here shortly. And they're going to be pissed."

"Daddy," said Emmy again, squirming.

"Another story?" said Tony.

Emmy nodded, her red hair flopping around as she did.

"Okay, how about I tell you how our first date went?"

Again, Emmy nodded, shooting Tony one of her brilliant smiles that lit up her entire face and then some, warming that place that Tony now knew held his heart because really there was no other reason he should be getting warm and fuzzy when surrounded by water that would not stop getting closer to his head.

"The first thing you need to know is that I screwed it up," said Tony, shifting Emmy so that she was up on his shoulders and farther away from the water. "Not on purpose but I'm really lucky I got a second date. Your Papa had been wooing me for about two months before he finally asked me on a date. I said yes, he got to pick the place. It was some little seafood joint that was about a half hour from the tower. I'd never been. I've never cared for seafood. Do you like seafood?"

Emmy shook her head, making a face, her little hand tugging Tony's hair while resting her chin on his head.

"Anyway, so because I don't eat seafood, Steve ordered because he loves seafood. It's like his kryptonite. So he picked out something supposedly really good but I wouldn't know because about to bites in I discovered the hard way that I'm deathly allergic to most seafood. And that's how I ended up puking my guts out on your Papa as he drove me to the hospital on our first date. Then we spent the rest of the night at the hospital. The end."

Emmy giggled but yawned.

"Someone's sleepy," said Tony, reaching up with one hand to pull Emmy back into his arms, doing his best to hold her out of the water.

Emmy curled up and dozed off until the water got too high, once again soaking her, which meant it had reached Tony's neck.

"I guess now's a good time to ask – do you know how to swim?" asked Tony as the water lapped at his chin.

Emmy shook her head, one hand fisting Tony's damp hair and the other held close to her chest to protect her crudely splinted arm.

"Then I guess we're about to find out if swimming is like riding a bike. I haven't done this in a few years."

Emmy's eyes widened in alarm at that statement, not at all sure she wanted to put her faith in someone who wasn't positive he could swim. But on the other hand, Tony had never failed her before, so that counted for something.

"Hey Em?" said Tony suddenly. "If I got us over to the middle where the water is coming from, do you think you could reach up there and turn off the water valve?"

Eyes scrunching in confusion, Emmy looked over to the center of the cage where the water was flowing down.

"I noticed it earlier," continued Tony. "It's a yellow handle, like the one in the workshop that turns the gas on and off. Do you remember that one? Good! Well do you think you could reach up in the water and turn this one off?"

Emmy nodded, reluctant to get near the falling water but also not wanting to let Tony down.

"That's my girl," said Tony, kissing the side of Emmy's head enthusiastically.

They had just gotten to the edge of the falling water, Tony treading water, Emmy standing precariously on his shoulders, reaching up towards the water, when they heard Clint.

"Guys, what's the code?" yelled Clint, standing at the door.

"Thirty-seven, eighty-nine, twelve, twenty-four, nine," responded Tony almost absently.

Clint punched in the number.

"Wait!" yelled Tony a split second after Clint hit the last number.

The doors opened and water began pouring out, sucking Tony and Emmy under in the rushing, the two tumbling apart and around, stuck in the swirling mass, unable to get air or see or tell when or if it would end.

 ***Internet! Here's to really helpful family who let me use their internet. Feedback welcomed and encouraged. Always - Ari**


	16. Come On

The instant the doors opened, Clint wished he had thought it through a bit more, but then gallons of water came knocking him off his feet and his highest priority became keeping his head above the mass and finding his friends. His back slammed into a wall, sparks of pain radiating up from the point of contact where the force of the water flow kept him pinned. He stayed like that for several minutes awaiting the moment when the water seemed to relax and the power lessened enough for Clint to shove away from the wall and search the rest of the room with his eyes, looking for a bright pop of red or a dark shadow of brown.

"There!" said Clint, wading through the waist deep receding water towards Tony, who was shaking against a wall but alive and breathing. "Tony! Where's Emmy?"

When the billionaire didn't respond Clint took a closer look at him, noting the blown pupils, sharp breathes, and tremors all before he saw the glassy sheen to his unseeing eyes and he realized that Tony was in the middle of a flashback. And as much as it hurt him to leave the man to suffer through his memories, he couldn't take the time to pull him out of it while Emmy was still missing. And looking out around the calmed water slowly seeping out of the room was when it hit Clint.

Emmy wasn't above the water.

-Winging It-

Natasha had just dealt with the final assailant on this level, leaving it clear for them to search, when alarms began to blare. They sounded nothing like the alarms Steve was used to at home. These were harsh and grating and getting on his nerves – or perhaps he was just finished with the entire ordeal and wanting his family back and that made him over react. Either way, the alarms didn't sound good.

"That will be Clint," said Natasha, her face tight.

"What do you mean?" said Steve, following the woman as she rushed out the door and into a stairwell. "It's an alarm, you can't know its Clint."

"Cap, it's a fire alarm," said Natasha reasonably, allowing Steve's slip in recognition because of the stress he was under. "Years ago, when Clint and I were on a mission and had to split up, we agreed that if things got bad, like Budapest bad, then we would pull the fire alarm and get to the other to get out."

"So Clint's in trouble?"

"No. We'd never pull the alarm for ourselves. Man, we really need to tell you guys about Budapest sometime. No, he pulled it because someone else is in deep trouble."

"Tony. Emmy."

Natasha nodded grimly and allowed Steve to take the lead in his rush to get to the bottom where Clint's tracker indicated he was.

As Steve ran, he couldn't help the thought flashing through his mind of the vows Tony and he had made at their wedding.

 _"_ _I promise to always protect you," said Steve, looking into Tony's eyes as the rest of the crowd seemed to fade away in that moment, leaving just the two of them in their own world. "Even though you don't need it. I promise to love you even when you think you don't deserve it. And I promise to always come for you, no matter what, I will always be there for you."_

 _"_ _The moment you asked me out, I knew it would go one of two ways because it was us," said Tony, beginning his own vows, his hands tightly clasped in Steve's but that didn't stop the trembling. "We would either be together until the end of time and space or we would go down in flames, probably literally, because you fall fast and I fall hard and neither of us give up easily. And I'm a flight risk, I know that, so the only vow I have to offer you is this: I promise that I will never give up on us in any way, shape, or form."_

"We're putting those vows to the test right now," growled Steve, barreling through the final door shoulder first and right into a room with water up to his knees.

The first thing he saw was Tony, crouched on the ground, shaking and in the midst of a flashback. Steve didn't even pause as he sprinted to his husband and gathered the smaller man into his arms, sitting on the water and rocking them both slowly, whispered words of assurance and encouragement into Tony's ear the entire time, even as the man squirmed in his grasp.

"Clint," said Natasha, running to the other side of the room where Clint stood.

"She's not breathing," hissed Clint, continuing to perform CPR on an unresponsive Emmy, which was proving difficult because he had to stand while doing it.

"Get on all fours," ordered Natasha, not wasting any time and scooping the child into her own arms, alarmed at how cold she was. "Hold still, I'm going to lay her on your back."

It was an uncomfortable configuration with Natasha on her knees and Clint thrusting his chin out to be above the water, but it served its purpose as Natasha began to perform proper CPR on their niece.

"Come on, come on, come on," growled Natasha, pumping Emmy's chest with firm fingers. "You've got this Emmy. You're a fighter. Come back to us, come on."

Pump. Pump. Pump. Pump.

"You just got a family," hissed Natasha. "Don't you dare give us up. Come on, Emmy. Breathe dammit!"

Pump. Pump. Pump. Pump.

Cough.

"Yes!"

As Emmy began to cough up water, Natasha turned her on her side, gently patting and rubbing her back to help get the water out.

"There you go," said Natasha. "That's it, good girl."

When the coughs turned to shuddering breaths, Natasha gathered Emmy into her arms and rocked the girl slightly as Clint righted himself, leaning in to check the youngest of their family over himself.

"You gave us a fright, Emmy," admitted Clint softly, brushing wet strands of hair out of her face.

Emmy blinked up at him hazily, her head resting on Natasha's shoulder, all energy seemingly gone.

"Clint, you take her," said Natasha, handing Emmy over to the archer. "That alarm will have notified everyone else that we're here. It's only a matter of time before they reach this room. We need to be long gone by then."

"Service stairs at near Steve and Tony," said Clint, nodding in the direction of the other Avengers. "Let's go. You take point."

Natasha nodded and ran over to explain to Steve what the plan was. The super soldier nodded and stood up, cradling a coherent but very ill Iron Man in his arms bridal style and following Natasha into the cramped stairwell. It was more flights up their Clint cared to count but somewhere after the second flight but before the seventh, Emmy fell asleep in his arms, mirroring her daddy in front of them.

 ***Still no internet. Sorry for the wait but here is a new chapter.**

 **Feedback/comments welcome. You are the best. Always- Ari**


	17. Cuddles

When she woke up, Emmy wasn't sure where she was, though to soft humming in the background was familiar, but she was warm and sleepy and just on the side of exhaustion that meant she could easily slip back into sleep or stay awake for a bit. Her body wanted her to sleep but her mind wanted to figure out where she was. In the end, her mind won out like it normally did.

Blinking her eyes open, the first thing Emmy saw was the clean white shirt her head was resting on. The white shirt moved and smelled like her Papa and following the shirt up confirmed that it was indeed her Papa she was resting on. Papa was fast asleep on a cramped couch that was three feet from the hospital bed where her Daddy was sleeping, hooked up to a lot of machines that were making the humming noise she was noticed upon waking. She was wrapped up in Uncle Clint's blanket from the quinjet and her arm was wrapped up in a tiny light blue cast that did nothing to stop the steadily growing throbbing that echoed up her arm and into the rest of her body.

"Papa?" whimpered Emmy softly, hoping to wake up the man she was sleeping on because even though she was still afraid of getting in trouble she was already in pain and Daddy and Papa had always been able to fix that before.

"Hm?" said Steve, blinking his eyes open and automatically searching the room for trouble. He knew that Natasha or Clint were standing guard and one glance at his husband told him Tony was still sleeping peacefully, the medications working wonders on healing his lungs. When he looked down, Steve found the reason he had woken up blinking back up at him in the form of bright purple eyes troubled with pain.

"Papa," said Emmy again once she had Steve's attention.

"Hey baby girl," said Steve, sitting up while keeping the girl securely pressed to his chest with one arm around her back. "You okay?"

Emmy shook her head and held out her casted arm with a frown.

"Does your arm hurt, sweetie?" asked Steve.

Emmy nodded.

"I'm so sorry," cooed Steve, kissing the top of Emmy's head. "Let's go find Aunt Natasha, she can get you something to make it better."

Emmy nodded and settled back against Steve, listening to his heartbeat as he walked from the room after checking on Tony. With her free hand, Emmy clutched both the blanket that smelled like Clint and Steve's shirt in the disconcerting habit the Avengers had noticed, as if she were constantly afraid that whatever she held would be snatched away if she let go. They wanted to tell her that it wasn't going to happen, that they were there to stay, but they also knew that the only way she would ever learn to trust them was to let her adjust on her own terms and until then just keep on letting her hold on to whatever she needed to grab.

"Nat," said Steve when he found the assassin down the hall near the coffee machines. "Emmy's arm hurts."

"Okay," said Natasha.

In the absence of Bruce, Natasha was the one the team trusted to take care of their medical needs. She knew the list of trusted doctors, their allergies, and how to handle each problem. In the case of Emmy, she knew where to get the medicines so the young girl wouldn't have to deal with more strange adults.

When Natasha left to get the medicine, Steve reached out to the coffee machine to pour himself of the half rate brew, which turned out to be more difficult one handed than he thought. He had seen Tony do it hundreds of times while the man was working, most of the time not even looking at the cup while he poured, yet it was a skill Steve still struggled with. Eventually, however, he managed and took a long sip from the steaming mug, letting the smell and caffeine enter his system.

Emmy's stomach grumbled at the smell, causing the super soldier to smile down at his dozing bundle.

"How about we get you some food?" suggested Steve, rocking his upper body slightly. "Clint dropped off some of your favorite snacks a while back. I bet you're hungry after the days we've had."

Back in the hospital room, Steve sitting on the couch with Emmy on his lap leaning against him, Steve held an open container of sliced apples which Emmy fed to herself one handed while Steve talked.

"When I finally got Daddy to say yes to a date with me," said Steve softly as his daughter ate. "I picked out this fantastic sea food place. Daddy doesn't like sea food much so he never ate it but I love sea food and figured that if he just tried a something new he would love it too. Well, I was wrong. I can't even remember what I ordered us but two bite in and Daddy was gagging and threw up all over the table and me before his throat started swelling up. I felt so bad! We had to spend the rest of the night in the hospital and I just knew that he was never going to go out on another date with me after I nearly got him killed on our first one. But you know Daddy, he just laughed it off and when I asked if I could make it up to him he agreed. I took him on a hot air balloon ride for our second date and no one nearly died. Since then, that's how we measured our dates, either they were good or someone nearly died."

Emmy smiled up at Steve.

"Daddy. Papa," said Emmy, pointing first at Tony's sleeping form and then up at Steve and then to herself before clumsily making the sign for family, head tilted to the side in question.

"Yes, Daddy and you and me are a family," said Steve with a smile. "And we love you very much."

Emmy thought about that statement for a long time, resting back against Steve, still huddled under Clint's blanket, until she finally came to a conclusion.

"I love you, Papa," whispered Emmy, closing her eyes and falling back asleep so quickly that she missed Steve's radiant smile down at her.

"I love you too, Emmaline Stark-Rogers," whispered Steve, kissing Emmy's curly hair.

 ***Still rocking the no internet life. Hopefully that will change in the next few days.**

 **also I acquired a kitten. I wanted to name him Moriarty but...he's just such a tricky little bastard that his name is Loki. I love him. Always-Ari**


	18. Home Again

"Home sweet home!" declared Steve upon entering the tower with his arm around Tony's waist and Emmy's uninjured hand clasped firmly in his.

"I'm sleeping for a month," said Tony, collapsing on the nearest couch with a groan, his body not quite recovered from it's most recent bout of illness. "If the assassin twins ever find that guy who thought kidnapping us was a good idea, let me know. I want to take a whack at him."

"Okay," said Steve with a grin, kissing the top of Tony's head while Emmy ran around the familiar living room, giggling.

"Daddy," said Emmy, tapping on Tony's cheek. "Daddy."

Tony opened one eye to stare at his daughter. "Yes Ducky?"

Emmy pointed to the elevator.

"Daddy's kinda tired, can Papa take you?" said Tony.

Emmy nodded and ran to the elevator, laughing when it opened.

"You sure you don't want to take her?" said Steve, worried. "You never turn down going to your workshop."

"When I go down there I'm going to see how behind I am and the bots are going to want attention and I'm too tired to deal with that," grumbled Tony. "I'll go down after…sleep and maybe food…mostly sleep."

"Okay," said Steve soothingly. "You rest for a bit. I'll wake you when it's time to eat and then if you're feeling up to it you can go to the workshop for a few hours. But just a few. I don't care how behind you say you are, you are not making yourself sick again just because you feel like you need to work. Pepper and Fury will understand if you take some time off to get better."

Tony nodded and waved in the general direction of the elevator where Emmy was waiting. With a final kiss, Steve joined the four year old in the elevator and took her to the workshop.

The workshop looked just like it always did when Tony wasn't in it, quiet and calm and chaoticly set up rolled into one. The instant Emmy entered, though, it came to life and Steve just stood back and watched. Dum-E rolled up to her, beeping joyfully and Emmy jumped on him, all limbs and laughter.

"Someone missed you," said Steve, arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe as the scene unfolded.

Dum-E rolled around the room with Emmy in tow, taking her to all his favorite spots, letting her pet the other bots when they too begged for attention. This lasted until Emmy reached up on a worktable and grabbed the tablet resting there. Once she had that, she ran back to Steve and held it up to him imploringly.

"Thank you," said Steve, accepting the tablet with a fond smile.

Emmy took his hand and pulled him back to the elevator and then living room where they found Tony fast asleep on the couch with Bucky on the ground watching television. Taking the tablet out of Steve's hands, Emmy ran back to the couch and set the tablet on the end table near Tony's head before jumping onto Bucky.

"Hey brat," said Bucky gruffly though he let Emmy crawl all over him like a kitten.

"Emmy, play nice with Uncle Bucky," said Steve, sitting down on the couch with Tony, lifting his head into his lap to play with the brown locks.

"I'm not your uncle, kid," said Bucky. "I don't want to be your uncle."

Emmy paused in her climbing, looking at Bucky with the saddest eyes ever, just brimming with tears, and then she ran from Bucky, across the room, and would have made it to the rest of the tower if Clint hadn't chosen that exact moment to arrive, walking in from the general stairwell, and catching Emmy instinctively as she barreled into him.

"Hey Em," said Clint, swinging the toddler up from the ground and into his arms. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Emmy pointed back at the living room where Steve's angry voice was floating out and sniffed sadly.

"What's got your Papa so upset?" said Clint, carrying her back to the living room.

"She has abandonment issues," hissed Steve - one large hand over Tony's exposed ear, effectively sandwiching the genius's head between hand and thigh, blocking out 90 percent of the noise and allowing the exhausted billionaire to remain sleeping through the drama - as Clint stuck his head around the corner. "And you tell her you don't want to be her uncle? She adores you, Bucky! Do you know what type of setback we're looking at now?"

"Hey Steve," said Clint, loath to interrupt but needing to regardless. "I'm going to take Emmy to her room to hang out for a bit."

"Thanks," said Steve.

When they arrived at Emmy's room, Clint set her down and joined her on the floor. Normally, Emmy would be off, running around her room and grabbing crowns and hats and scarves to dress Clint up in, wanting to play and run around, but not this time. This time, she slowly walked over to her bed and crawled under, dragging her stuffed dog with her and the stolen blue blanket that used to be Clint's but she hadn't let go of since the hospital before curling up in a ball and sticking her thumb in her mouth.

"Want company?" asked Clint, peeking under the bed.

Emmy shook her head, blinking owlishly out at nothing, the dog's ear replacing her thumb in her mouth to get sucked on, no tears leaving her eyes which made it worse because tears Clint knew how to handle but this calm, dead look was not.

"Okay," said Clint. "Is it okay if I just sit here then?"

Emmy nodded and Clint sat down, leaning back against the tiny bed, picking up one of the many books near the comforter and began reading it, resigning himself to another rough day for Emmy. He almost felt sorry for Bucky, being on the receiving end of Steve's anger but then that empty look in Emmy's eyes came back to his memory and he decided Bucky would be getting off easy if he only had to deal with Steve.

 ***SPOILER FOR NEXT CHAPTER!**

 **"I'm sorry, what?" said Tony, shifting his grip on the girl riding on his shoulders.**

 **"Emmaline is my daughter and I want her back now," said the man.**

 **END SPOILER!**

 **You all are the best!**


	19. Don't Touch My Things

"Emmy?" called Bucky softly.

"Go away, Barnes," said Clint coldly from his spot guarding the bed. "She just fell asleep. You are not waking my niece up after what you did."

"I didn't mean it like that," said Bucky tiredly. "I'm just no good. I can't be her uncle, I've killed hundreds of people. I killed her grandparents. I've never been around kids before. I don't like kids, even when I was one of them I didn't like them. I don't know what I'm doing!"

"It doesn't matter what you think," growled Clint. "She doesn't care about what you've done or who you used to be. Emmy adores you. She has zero fear of you. And you rejecting her, that's not something you can fix with a simple apology. So when she wakes up, you will tell her you're sorry and then you will make it up to her by being the very best uncle you could dream of because that's what's going to matter to her."

Bucky wanted to yell at Clint, tell the archer that he was not to be bossed around, but Clint was right and Bucky knew it, so he nodded and left, slipping past Steve before the super soldier entered.

"How is she?" asked Steve softly.

"She's under the bed," said Clint. "She's smart, she'll bounce back from this but it's going to take time. She's probably going to be clingy for a while until she feels comfortable in the knowledge that we're not leaving but it'll get better. Have you told Tony?"

"Yeah, we had a chat just now about it. He's down in the workshop now."

"How far behind on work is he?" asked Clint, not truly wanting to know the answer. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"If he were up to full health, he'd just be a week of hard work and sleepless nights but he's not, so it'll be closer to two weeks. It should be three but we both know he won't take the time he really needs."

"I'm going to go check on him," said Clint. "When he's all caught up, I'll take us all out to lunch at that Chinese place he likes so much."

-Winging It-

"Are you sure you're up to this?" asked Steve for the tenth time as he walked next to Tony on the busy street.

"It's been almost three weeks since we got back," groaned Tony. "I'm fine. Seriously, just a bit tired but Clint promised me Chinese as a reward for catching up on my work so I want my Chinese food! Emmy does too, right Em?"

Emmy giggled and nodded, her casted hand waving around in the air in glee while her uninjured one yanked on Tony's hair for balance. It was cold, well into December, but bundled up they were all warm and no one really wanted to battle the traffic.

"Bucky just texted me that he arrived at the place," said Clint, glancing down at his phone. "Also there's a guy approaching on your six, Cap. Not lethal, probably just wants a picture or something."

"Hello," said Steve pleasantly when the man was within earshot and making eye contact.

"I want my daughter back," said the man, talking over Steve in a voice that sounded like it could have been thunder but everyone present personally knew the god of thunder, so the voice fell short of its mark.

He was almost as tall as Steve, easily taller than Tony, with rough caramel hair, full beard, and glare to match. His cheap suit and yellowed with age dress shirt offended Tony on a personal level but the worst thing came when he opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry, what?" said Tony, shifting his grip on the girl riding on his shoulders.

"Emmaline is my daughter and I want her back," said the man.

"Clint, take Emmy and go tell Bucky we're going to be a bit late," said Tony calmly.

"Sure thing," said Clint. "Come on, Emmy. Let's go get Uncle Bucky to buy us ice cream."

"No sweets before dinner," said Steve absently, not taking his eyes off the man standing before him trying to claim Emmy; the only person allowed to claim Emmy was Tony and that was because Steve couldn't break Tony of the habit of introducing Emmy as his.

"What do you want?" demanded Tony as soon as Clint and Emmy were clear.

"I want my daughter back," said the man. "My name is Tiberius Stone and I want the girl back."

"Well Emmy's mine," said Tony loftily and for once Steve was glad of the fierce possessive streak his husband had because Steve had never seen anyone successfully take from Tony what the man had claimed to be his. "So go find some other child you've abandoned to claim because you're not getting her."

"I'm her father, she needs me!"

"She needed you back when she was getting hit and thrown into a closet for talking and yelled at and starved," snapped Steve. "Where were you then?"

"I don't have to answer to you," said Tiberius imperiously. "Just return what's mine to me now or I will take you fags to court. Who do you really think they will side with?"

"Tough choice," said Tony sarcastically, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought. "The man who abandoned her and left her to be abused or Captain America and Iron Man who adopted her, removing her from that environment and gave her a loving home? You really want to go against my lawyers?"

"That girl is mine and you know it."

"What's her favorite food? Color? What time does she go to bed?"

"All things that can change. She's mine. I'll see you both in court."

"You're really going to put her through that?" said Steve, trying to be reasonable. "Think about it, Mr. Stone. You left. Her mother died. She was sent to live at a home where she was hated and hurt. She has only just started to recover from that and you want to drag her through a legal battle?"

"If that's the only way to get her back then yes. My lawyer will be calling you."

Tiberius stormed off before the super hero's could respond.

"He can't really do that, can he?" said Steve, turning desperate eyes on Tony, begging the billionaire to fix it like he fixed everything else when it broke. "He can't take her away from us. He left, we adopted her. She's ours."

"Technically the papers are still being process," said Tony slowly. "Even Agent can't make it go faster. So until they are fully processed, we technically only have temporary custody of Emmy. To the courts, we're just her foster parents. And if this guy really is her father, he will have legal rights to her. I'll get JARVIS on researching the guy, finding out every dirty secret and where the hell he's been for the past few years."

"So the court could side with him?" whispered Steve.

"What?" said Tony, looking up at his husband for the first time, realizing he had been speaking aloud more than in his head.

"You just said-"

"No!" said Tony in a rush to console his husband. "No, I meant that he has enough of a case that he can take us to court, not that he would win. Emmy is ours. Trust me, baby, I'm not going to let anything happen to our little girl."

Steve didn't look convinced so Tony leaned up and kissed him. He still didn't look convinced after hat so Tony took his hand and they walked the rest of the way to the Chinese place in silence, holding hands as the city rolled by without them noticing because their hands were still firmly clasped together but the rest of the world was trembling at best, on the verge of falling apart and though neither said it they knew that if they stopped, if they let the other go for even a fraction of a second, the world would implode and they would be lost.

 ***Feedback welcome.**

 **I did the thing. The thing where real life rules come back into play and even Tony can't rush the adoption process. Trust me, it takes ages. Always- Ari**


	20. Tony, that means You

"He has a case," said Coulson that evening in the tower after Emmy was asleep. "If he had waited just a week, then Emmy would have legally been yours and it would have been a different case altogether but now that he's filed for her the process has been frozen."

"Okay," said Tony slowly, pacing the room in hopes of relieving some of his restless energy. "Okay, that's not awful. It's not ideal, I really wanted those official papers for Christmas but Steve's always telling me that getting everything I want will make me spoiled. And it's just the official say-so, not like I've ever needed that before, we all know Emmy is mine so that's not an issue."

"You're doing it again, love," said Steve patiently.

"What?" said Tony, looking around and instantly finding Steve as if he were a heat seeking missile in the middle of a snowstorm and Steve was an erupting volcano.

"Workshop thinking," replied Steve with a fond grin because Tony always thought aloud in the workshop.

"Sorry."

"Phil, isn't there anything we can do?" said Natasha from where she was curled up on an armchair. "That man can't just barge into Emmy's life now. The courts can't possibly side with him."

"They have in similar cases," said Phil grimly. "I'm not saying that will happen this time, I'm just saying that everyone – Tony – has to be on their best behavior and follow my instructions – Tony – so that the courts have no reason to take her away. But you do need to know that they will be taking her away for the duration of the trial."

"What?!" yelled all of the Avengers at once, Bruce going so far as to leave the room in favor of his Hulk room.

"They can't do that!"

"It's not right!"

"She belongs with us!"

"Let me explain," said Phil calmly, his sharp voice cutting through the chaos in a way only he could manage.

Tony looked ready to pounce and verbally rip Coulson to shreds. The only thing that stopped him from acting upon that urge was Steve getting up and standing behind him, his broad arms wrapping firmly around Tony's chest, grounding him to the present and keeping his temper contained.

"Go on, Phil," said Steve in that polite tone he only ever acquired when he was truly mad.

"Until this custody issue is settled, they aren't going to want Emmy to be with either party," said Phil. "She could be influenced, trained, coached, whatever you want to call it. So they will ask for her to be placed in emergency custody, sending her to one of the preapproved homes in the area that exist just for such situations. Now if Stone has done his research and spoken to the owner of the home Emmy stayed at until she moved here, then he will know that talking is not her strong suit, that she has nightmares and is painfully shy and he will use that. His lawyers will call upon her in trial and she will have to go up."

"No," snapped Tony. "There's no fucking way that's happening. The judge has to rule that out. They can do that, I know they can. They can say it would be detrimental to the child's wellbeing to be put through that and make it impossible for that to happen."

"Normally that would happen but this is you, Tony. This is going to be all over the media and frankly, it's not actually a case of abuse and since Emmy has been tested and scored high enough she can and probably will be used in the trial. If I were Stone's lawyers, I'd use her. I'd sit her up there and paint Stone as the wronged father just looking to be reunited with his baby girl. Get the jury sympathetic enough to rule in his favor. There will probably be tears involved and since Emmy doesn't talk it will be easy to put words in her mouth."

"That fucking sick psycho!"

"Yes, we all agree with you but we don't have much time so if you don't shut up I will shock you into next year."

"Tony, please," whispered Steve, pressing a kiss to Tony's ear.

"Now," said Phil, eying the rest of the room. "This is going to move fast because of the media. The odds are that Stone has already told anyone who would listen – and that's a lot of people – that he is the rightful father of the girl Captain America and Iron Man have taken in, so everything is already in motion. Emmy will be removed from your care until this is worked out, I'd say by mid-morning at best. Hopefully we can get this over with by Christmas and since a child is in play everyone will want to keep the trial short."

"Where is she going to go?" asked Clint, absently polishing his bow.

Before Coulson could respond, there was a slight noise near the door and everyone turned to see a sleepy Emmy standing in her favorite Captain America footie pajamas, thumb in mouth, hair a mess, and stuffed dog under arm.

"Hey Ducky," said Tony, worming out of Steve's grip and going to crouch in front of his daughter. "What are you doing up?"

"Miss Emmy appears to have had another nightmare, Sir," said JARVIS helpfully.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Tony, opening his arms and allowing her to fall into them like she always did. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

Emmy shook her head tiredly.

"How about we watch a movie?" suggested Steve with a sad attempt at a smile. "I'll make coco."

"I'll make mashed potatoes," said Bruce, sticking his head through the doorframe on his way to the kitchen looking tired but not green.

"Blankets," said Clint, sprinting out of the room before anyone could question.

"JARVIS, let's pick out a movie," said Natasha while Steve and Tony made their way to the room set aside entirely for the days when they needed to cuddle – and that is what they called it because Tony could not find a more manly word for it and Steve refused to let it be called Super Secret Boy Band Snuggle Fest.

Coulson watched with a ghost of a smile as the makeshift family settled in together in the mountain of pillows, a blanket from every person's room, and the opening scene of the Swan Princess playing, before turning away to conspire with Tony's lawyers and Pepper because anyone who was willing to take away the happiness his charges had only recently found, deserved not only to be refused but also to be utterly destroyed because this blow, taking away their youngest, would destroy the Avengers far more effectively than any foe they had faced yet.

 ***I love Agent. He's my favorite. Always - Ari**


	21. Pulling Punches

She wouldn't let go of his neck. They had been at it for almost an hour, trying to coax Emmy to let go of Tony, several bags of anything she could possibly want packed and loaded into the sleek black car where Phil was waiting but the moment Emmy saw her things getting packed and no one else's, she had latched on to Tony and refused to let go.

"Baby, please," begged Steve, tears in his eyes. "I know you don't want to go, we don't want you to either, but you have to go with Phil for a bit. I promise it's not forever and Daddy and I will talk to you every day. It's just like when Daddy and I have to go to work, only for a little longer."

Emmy shook her head and wept into Tony's neck. Steve put his head in his hands, heartbroken and lost.

"Ducky, I need to talk to you but you won't be able to hear me over the crying," said Tony reasonably, running a callused hand up and down the girls back. "So if you could pause the tears while we talk, I promise you can continue them as soon as we're done, okay?"

It took her several minutes to calm herself down but eventually, Emmy nodded, tears still streaming down her face but no longer accompanied by the soul shattering wails.

"Good job," said Tony softly, praising her efforts. "You're such a smart girl, you know that? I'm so proud of you."

"Da-daddy," hiccupped Emmy, shaking her head in protest, normally vibrant eyes red rimmed, nose running, hair damp with sweat from the tantrum she had been running for so long.

"So you know Agent, right?" said Tony as brightly as possible. "He always wears a suit, likes Papa best, is a glorified babysitter?"

Emmy nodded.

"Good! Well, you get to go hang out with him for a few days, maybe longer."

Emmy started to sniffle, the tears falling faster.

"But Uncle Bucky is going to be there too because turns out his official residence is with Agent as part of his rehab or whatever. So basically it's a big sleepover with Agent and Uncle Bucky and Uncle Bucky is going to spoil you rotten because he's still trying to make up for being a dick-"

"Language."

"-tator, a dictator," finished Tony, throwing Steve a look. "So will you go with them please?"

Emmy shook her head no and started sobbing again, burrowing back into the spot where Tony's neck and shoulder joined. Tony sighed and looked up at Steve.

"Let's bring her downstairs," said Tony sadly.

Together, they rode the elevator down to the parking garage and walked out to the car that was waiting for them, Coulson in the driver seat, Bucky leaning against the outside of the car like a guard. Emmy sobbed harder the closer they got, clutching Tony's shirt so hard he thought it might rip. The entire time he kept talking to her soothingly, saying all the things he promised they would do when they were back together but nothing helped. Eventually he had to lean into the car, set Emmy in the seat, strap her in, and kiss her head while prying her small fingers off his shirt. When he leaned back, Emmy reached out to him, fighting the restraints of the seat, screaming her lungs out in desperation to get back to her family.

"I love you," said Tony with a fake smile. "We'll see you really soon."

Then he shut the door, which did little to muffle the high pitched screams still sounding in the car. Coulson didn't even flinch.

"Take care of her," said Steve in a choked voice.

Bucky nodded and climbed into the front seat. As soon as he was in, Coulson put the car in drive and drove away, leaving a super soldier and genius standing empty handed in the parking garage.

Silently, the pair turned and got back into the private elevator, riding it all the way back up to the top of the building.

"It's going to be okay," said Tony when they got two steps back into the common area and still no one had said anything. "She's going to be okay."

"How can you say that?" yelled Steve, turning and glaring at his husband. "Did you hear her? Do you even care that she was yelling for us and we just let her get taken away?"

"Yeah Steve," snapped Tony, staring back with just as much frustration. "But she's with Agent and Bucky, which is better than we could have hoped for."

"Oh, so now you're going to be Mr. Brightside of Life? Very rich coming from the man who spent decades doing his best to drown himself in alcohol. Our daughter is gone and you don't even care! What is wrong with you? Did they remove your heart when they took out the reactor? Are you really that soulless that you can be fine after that little girl begged you not to let her go and you still strapped her into that car and walked away? Fuck you, Tony!"

Steve stormed out of the room, heading for the gym, leaving Tony to stand in absolute stillness for a minute. It was as if someone had pressed pause on the man, until a single tear dripped down his cheek. That single droplet acted as an alarm, waking him up. Slowly, Tony turned and walked back towards the bedroom, Steve's words hounding him as he went because Steve was a fierce fighter and he knew where to hit to really make a man hurt, and he hadn't pulled any punches. Eventually, Tony crawled on to the oversized pillow bag that Steve, Emmy, and him always curled up on together for stories and had made blanket forts over many times. The billionaire hugged the small purple pillow that was Emmy's to his chest and cried himself to sleep there in the middle of his daughter's deserted room.

 ***So I did that thing where I threw in a bunch of feels because...because it needed to be done. Always - Ari**


	22. No Further Questions

"Come on, Emmy," said Phil Coulson for the twenty-second time – Bucky knew, he had been counting – but it yielded the same result as all the others, with a firm shake of her little head and a mouth clamped shut. "You have to eat something."

"Let me try," said Bucky, marching over to the table with a bowl of blueberries and frozen grapes.

"Fine," sighed Phil, moving back to the kitchen to prepare a pizza in hopes that maybe the kid would eat that. "She's just as stubborn as her fathers."

"I'm not going to make you eat," said Bucky while Emmy stared up at him. "I'm going into the living room and reading a book. Phil has a computer in there that I will not be paying any attention to and he will be in the kitchen for at least twenty minutes."

A thoughtful looked crossed the four year olds face before a ghost of a smile appeared and she willingly followed Bucky into the living room. Sure enough, Bucky set the bowl of fruit on the ground near the toddler and made himself comfortable on the couch with a book. Emmy dragged the laptop off of the hideous map printed chair and sat in front of the couch before opening her bag of tools Bucky had thoughtfully placed on the coffee table and setting to work. As she worked, she would absently take a blueberry or grape and pop it in her mouth, just as Bucky knew she would, accomplishing his goal of getting the girl to eat.

It had been seven days since Emmy had moved in with Phil Coulson and Bucky had left the tower to return to his old, seldom used room where he had first lived when returning from being the Winter Soldier. SHEILD had set Coulson up with a huge apartment that held several extra rooms that were periodically used to place new, wary recruits under his watchful eye. Clint and Natasha had each spent time in the guest rooms in what they secretly called 'Phil Coulson's Home for Wayward Souls'.

In the seven days since moving in, the trial had started, much to the discontentment of everyone's lawyers who had been working overtime to get their cases ready and were used to having months to prepare, not days. An arrangement had been reached that allowed Emmy to stay largely out of the issue, limiting her time in court to a single day, which would be the following morning. Emmy had adjusted to living with Coulson and Bucky as best she could, refusing to eat and sleep when they asked, taking apart everything within reach, and crying the moment her mind was uninhabited enough to note that she still wasn't with her fathers. As destructive as she was being, Coulson and Bucky just let her, knowing it was her way of venting in a situation she didn't understand and as smart as she was, she was still four years old and her coping mechanisms weren't developed.

When Coulson entered the living room thirty seven minutes later, Emmy had finally fallen asleep, curled up on the ground with her blanket thrown over her body, the remnants of Agent Coulson's work laptop splayed about in front of her. Bucky was still reading, metal arm distractedly stroking Emmy's back and hair whenever the girl twitched in her sleep.

"My laptop, really?" whispered Coulson, disapproval clear on his face. "You couldn't have moved it out of reach and let her take apart the lamp or television or something?"

"I could have," shrugged Bucky. "But she was about two minutes away from another melt down so I thought I'd let her take the easy way out and work until she fell asleep and I was not about to go fetch the television for her. She'll be down all night now, she's been using all her energy to be upset."

"Did you at least get her to eat something?"

In way of answering, Bucky pointed to the almost empty bowl of fruit near the slumbering child.

"I'll admit, I'm impressed," said Coulson, sitting in his favorite ugly armchair. "Did you put her in a pull up?"

"I wanted her to sleep, not throw a tantrum," scowled Bucky.

"Fine, you're cleaning up any mess she makes then."

Emmy had been having nightmares which caused her to have accidents. Steve had warned him that it was a possibility and it was part of their nightly routine for Emmy to have a bath, put on a pull up and her jammies, have a story or two read to her, and then sleep. So far Emmy had refused all of those activities with gusto and the only time they tried to give her a bath had sent her in to a full blown panic attack that had resulted in a frantic call begging Clint to come over and calm the girl down. Needless to say, they did showers after that – which resulted in far wetter adults but far calmer children.

"Fine," said Bucky, not voicing that he was just happy she was sleeping before she had to appear in court in a few hours.

-Winging It-

Emmy sat on Bucky's lap in the stand next to the judge looking out at the packed room, seeing mostly strangers all eager to watch the proceeding trial of the famous Stark-Rogers vs Stone.

"Miss Stone," said Tiberius Stone's lawyer, a man by the name of Elliot Gunter. "Can you point out your father for the nice people of the jury?"

"That's not the question he should have asked," Tony whispered to Steve, rolling his eyes at the proceedings. "You don't ask 'can' you ask 'will' because of course she can, she's a smart girl."

"Tony, hush," said Steve, eyes trained intently on his daughter.

Emmy nodded her head but didn't move.

"Miss Stone?" prompted Mr. Gunter. "Point out your father for us."

Emmy leveled him with a look, then signed something to him and sat back, arms crossed and pouting.

"Miss Stone, you have the ability to use your voice," snapped Mr. Gunter, his patience transparent. "A doctor has looked you over, physically the only thing wrong with you is your broken arm, which you acquired while in the care of Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers. So if you would kindly use your voice, that would be appreciated since no one here knows sign language."

"I do," said Clint from his place in the crowd, holding up his hand and standing. "I'm fluent in sign language, if you'd like me to interpret, your honor."

"Your honor no," said Mr. Gunter, seeing his main advantage of Emmy not speaking slipping through his fingers. "The child does not have a disability, she is just refusing to speak."

"Your honor, if I may," said Steve, standing up and buttoning his suit jacket as he did. "Emmy doesn't talk because of the abuse she suffered while in the care of Mrs. Sunset, which was discussed yesterday at length. Emmy will communicate via sign language, though, and I feel like since so much trouble was gone to so that Emmy would appear in court today only, we should make use of it and let her speak in whatever way she is comfortable."

Steve sat back down and all eyes returned to the judge. There was a moment of silence that seemed to drag on for several years before the judge nodded his head.

"Very well," said the judge. "Sir, please come forward."

Clint resisted the urge to simply hop the rail that separated the public from the conflict and allowed the gate to be opened for him before approaching the tall desk where the judge sat. It towered over him and the archer couldn't help but think that Phil Coulson could use a desk like that for conducting official Avengers business. He made a mental note to get Tony on bored with that prank after things had settled down a bit.

"Please state your name and purpose for being here for the official record," said the judge.

"Clint Barton, interpreter," said Clint clearly.

"Very well, proceed," said the judge, sitting back in his creaking chair.

Emmy instantly signed to Clint, her nose scrunched in confusion, brow furrowed in distress, two emotions that Clint never wanted to see on the young girl.

"What did she say?" demanded Mr. Gunter.

"I can point out my father," said Clint, speaking Emmy's words for everyone to hear. "But you should be clearer as to which one you want me to point out."

"Your biological father, the one who helped create you," snapped Mr. Gunter.

"I'm four," said Clint when Emmy shook her head and signed again. "My biological father left right after I was born, I don't remember him."

"Then why did you say you could point out your father?"

Emmy rolled her eyes and signed again, slower, as if the lawyer asking her the questions could understand what she was saying but was too slow for her to sign at a normal rate.

"Because," said Clint, barely subduing a grin as the young girl's sass. "Daddy and Papa are sitting right there and I can point them out. I know them."

The room erupted in laughter while Mr. Gunter seethed.

"Miss Stone, did you attain your broken arm while in the care of Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers?" commanded Mr. Gunter.

"I was kidnapped and the man who did that broke my arm," said Clint for Emmy.

"Answer the query with a yes or no, Miss Stone."

Emmy nodded her head slowly, sinking back into Bucky's chest a bit as the lawyer raised his voice. Bucky tightened his grip on her in reply.

"So you are not safe with Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers. The bodily damage you received while in their care is proof that all can see that these two men are unfit for properly caring for a child. She never fell to harm while in the care of her biological father. Ever. No further questions."

Tony's lawyer was a kind looking overweight middle aged man who waddled as he approached the bench where Emmy sat with Bucky. He was Tony's second choice, his first choice being Caroline Anders who had taken care of most of his cases in the past when he didn't have time to dedicate to them, but he had known that Emmy was going to have to appear and therefore went with his second choice to make her more comfortable.

"Hello Emmy," said Ronald Garcia. "My name is Mr. Garcia and I'm going to ask you some questions, okay?"

Emmy nodded, the thumb of her uninjured hand slipping into her mouth.

"Emmy, who do you want to live with, the Stark-Rogers family or Mr. Stone?"

Emmy pointed instantly to Tony and Steve.

"You want to live with Tony and Steve?"

Emmy nodded.

"Okay. Now Emmy, I understand that you used to live in a home with a bunch of other children, is that correct?"

Emmy nodded.

"Did you like it there?"

The four year old shook her head.

"Why?"

Emmy took her thumb out of her mouth to sign hesitantly, looking at the railing in front of her instead of up, ashamed of what she was communicating.

"Mrs. Sunset and the other kids were mean to me," said Clint, his voice steady in a way that was trained and hid his rising anger as the girl continued to sign. "Mrs. Sunset yelled and hit me and locked me in the dark for days. The other kids made fun of me and pushed me around because they knew they wouldn't get in trouble for it. When I was in the dark, I used to think about how nice it would be to have my dad come get me and take me away from there. And then, three months ago, at an adoption party, Tony sat next to me and showed me how to fix the toy robot. He told Steve and Mrs. Sunset that I was his and he took me away from there. Steve and Tony don't yell at me, even when I spill juice and make a mess and wake them up from nightmares. I like living with them. They want me and they're mine now. Please don't make me leave. Please. I'll be good, I promise, I just want to live with Daddy and Papa. Please."

"No further questions."

 ***This is the one (and probably only) time you will get an update on a Saturday. Always - Ari**


	23. Feels like Your Hand is on the Door

It had been the longest eight days of their lives and Steve had spent 70 years in the ice while Tony had spent 3 months in a cave. But those eight days had been longer. Tony didn't come to sleep in their room when he bothered to sleep at all. Steve barely spoke to him, only phrases like, 'Pass the jam' and 'You should sleep'. It didn't stop the super soldier from leaving food in places that he knew Tony would find just like it didn't stop Tony from picking up Steve's red towel off the floor and handing it up when the super soldier left it in a heap after showering, just like he always did. But between the two, something was off and it was plain to see that it was the absence of a certain tiny red head.

Seeing their daughter at the trial was harder than they thought it would be. The girl was wearing her purple skirt and black sweater and Coulson had even managed to get the black shoes that clacked when she walked on and she looked utterly miserable when she walked in holding Bucky's metal hand. The two super heroes wanted nothing more than to reach out and scoop her up, take her home, and never let her out of their sight again, but they couldn't and it hurt more than a punch to the spleen. Under the table, Tony hesitantly reached out and gripped Steve's warm fingers, light enough that the super soldier could pull away if he wanted but hard enough that the billionaire had the contact he had been missing for the past eight days.

Steve adjusted his hand as Emmy was questions so he could more firmly hold on to his husband, his blue eyes never leaving the young girl sitting on his long time best friends lap. Tears slipped from his eyes as he watched his daughter sign. He knew most of the signs, had learned a proficient amount in the time she had lived with them in order to understand her, but he wasn't fluent yet and was grateful for Clint interpreting. Tony, who had mastered sign language when he first learned Clint was deaf, understood it all and squeezed Steve's hand tighter in an effort to prevent his own tears from escaping because he was Tony Stark-Rogers and he did not cry in front of anyone.

"No further questions," said Mr. Garcia and he sat back down.

Emmy looked up at the judge next to her and in an impulsive movement, climbed out of Bucky's lap and onto the ledge of the chair, reaching out and tugging on the judge's robe sleeve.

"Yes?" said the judge, brow furrowing in confusion.

Emmy signed quickly before she lost her balance.

"May I say hello to my fathers before I have to go?" said Clint.

He was about to refuse, Clint could see it in the set of the judge's wobbly chins. The man was going to quote some obscure rule with sections and sub-sections and Emmy would have to go home with Bucky and Phil without getting to talk to her fathers. But then Emmy turned the full force of her puppy dog eyes on the judge, her face taking on the saddest look Clint had ever seen, eyes watering just a touch, lower lip quivering, chin tilted down so she was looking up at the judge through her soft red lashes, and the judge caved.

"Quickly," said the judge with a nod.

Emmy nodded, giving the judge one of her glowing smiles, then turned to Clint and held her arms up so he could lift her over the ledge. Clint obliged and set the girl on the ground where she took off running and threw herself at her fathers.

"Hey baby," said Steve with a smile as the girl was sandwiched between the soldier and billionaire. "Missed you too."

"You did so well, Ducky," said Tony. "Are you being good for Agent?"

Emmy nodded and burrowed closer to the men, uninjured hand clutching Tony's suit jacket, wrinkling the expensive material, and injured hand doing it's best to do the same to Steve's but not accomplishing it was well.

"I know, baby girl," cooed Steve. "But we'll get this sorted, okay? You'll get to come home soon."

"Alright, it's time to go, kid," said Bucky when the judge cleared his throat.

"I love you, Emmy," said Steve, kissing the top of Emmy's head. "Be good."

"Don't blow anything up," said Tony, kissing Emmy's wild hair as Bucky reached out to take her away again. "I love you, Ducky."

Emmy began to silently cry and Bucky picked her up and began to walk away. She didn't want to go but she knew she had to be a big girl and stay with Uncle Bucky a little bit longer.

-Winging It-

"Tony?" said Steve quietly, leaning against the door of their daughters room later that evening.

Tony didn't answer, just continued to lay on the ground in the semi darkness, staring up at the ceiling where a projection of hot air balloons was playing. His suit jacket was scrunched into a pillow under his head, his pants were wrinkled and his shirt untucked. It was ruining his clothed but the genius just couldn't bring himself to care.

"Honey, look at me," beseeched Steve, venturing in and settling on his back next to his husband.

Tony didn't answer more than blinking his russet eyes up at the ceiling as JARVIS reformed it into blueprints.

"I'm sorry," whispered Steve brokenly. "I'm so sorry. I've been sorry since I stormed away but I couldn't apologize because I'm an idiot. You didn't deserve anything I said, you didn't deserve to have to be alone during this, you didn't deserve any of it. I was scared and hurt and I took it out on you. I'm still scared, I'm terrified that I'm going to lose Emmy and you. I'm scared I already lost you because I was too afraid to reach out and too self-absorbed to be there for you. Please, say something. Tony, anything, please."

Slowly, Tony turned his head and eyed Steve, as if he was trying to conclude if the man was serious or just trying to save his own ass by apologizing.

"I'm tired," whispered Tony.

And those two words did more to relieve the tension that had built in Steve's chest for the past eight days than any speech would have. It was Tony's code for wanting to be held and cared for but being too stubborn to ask properly. It was his way of saying that he knew Steve was sorry, had known since his favorite guilty pleasure coffee had appeared in his workshop seven days and twelve hours ago.

"Let's go to bed," whispered Steve.

"If you're thinking of taking advantage of me," began Tony with a tiny smirk.

"Mind out of the gutter," said Steve, hoisting Tony up and making their way to their bedroom down the hall.

"Make up sex later," agreed Tony. "After."

"After," agreed Steve, knowing that Tony meant after tomorrow when they would get the verdict, when they would know if Emmy got to come home with them or if they would lose her forever because there was no doubt in his mind that if Tiberius got her then he would make it impossible for them to see her ever again.

 ***So yeah, next chapter we find out who get's Emmy. Always - Ari**


	24. Loved You Then

"Emmy, please, you need to put on your dress so we can go," said Phil Coulson as patiently as he possibly could. "We've been at it for almost an hour, please just put on the dress."

Emmy shook her head stubbornly, eyes scrunched in a glare at the man holding the dress and pointed again to the dresser, making it clear that she did not want to wear that outfit.

"Once you put on the dress we can have breakfast," coaxed Coulson.

Emmy crossed her arms and shook her head, which would have been adorable if Coulson hadn't been up most of the night with the girl because of nightmares. As it was, they were both exhausted and Coulson really just needed a cup of coffee.

"You go fix breakfast," said Bucky, entering the bedroom with his own steaming mug of coffee. "I'll get her into something and then we can go. I already put a blueberry muffin in her bag."

"She has to wear something nice," said Coulson sternly. "Everyone else will already be there and we will get called in when they are ready to make their verdict so she has to be dressed nicely."

"I get it, no running around in her underwear, jeez," said Bucky, rolling his eyes.

When Coulson had finally cleared the room, Bucky opened a few drawers of the dresser and took out several things, setting them on the bed, before picking the toddler up.

"Alright brat," said Bucky, amused at the way Emmy wove her tiny fingers through his hair. "Those are your choices. What do you want to wear?"

Emmy looked thoughtfully at the clothes, taking in all the options before pointing to the long sleeved green shirt and plain black pants. Bucky nodded before dumping the toddler on the bed and helping he get dressed. By the time he was wrestling with her unruly hair, Coulson stuck his head back through the door.

"We're going to be late if we don't leave in the next minute," said Coulson, which was a lie because they didn't need to be there for another hour but he didn't tell Bucky that.

"Keep your pants on, we're almost ready," groused Bucky, finally giving up on the mess that was Emmy's hair and letting it loose. Instead he picked up the girl, tossing her onto his shoulders where she instantly grabbed tiny handfuls of his long hair, and made his way to the car.

-Winging It-

When Steve found Tony, the billionaire was standing fully dressed in his third best suit, leaning out on the balcony, not doing a thing that Steve could see except holding the universe together through sheer will power. The super soldier approached his husband and wrapped his arms around the smaller mans waist from behind, lips playing havoc on his nerves where they caressed his hear.

"Do you remember that first night we slept together?" asked Tony, staring out at the expanse of buildings. "Like, actually fell asleep together?"

"Of course," said Steve with a smile. "You were exhausted from working in the shop for two days, it was movie night, we were on the couch together. You were laying on top of me, mostly asleep, and when I tried to move you so I could get up, you said, 'Sometimes I wrestle with my demons. Sometimes we just cuddle.' I didn't know whether to be insulted or laugh, so I did neither and just settled back on the couch and fell asleep with you."

"I didn't think I could ever love you more at that moment in time," admitted Tony. "And then, 38 days later, you told me you loved me for the first time."

"After that gala where the old broad wouldn't stop hitting on you," laughed Steve, remembering that night fondly. "I was so mad."

"And you told me you loved me and I didn't think I could ever love you more. And then, 427 days later you asked me to marry you. And if I thought I loved you then I was wrong because it was nothing compared to how I much I adored you on our wedding day."

"Adored?" said Steve, his tone teasing but his stomach sinking at the past tense.

"The trouble is, all of that pales in comparison to how much farther I've fallen for you since we got Emmy. You make an incredible father, I always knew you would, and I love you all the more for it. But me? I'm a shit person and worse father."

"Tony-"

"No, I curse in front of her, I let her play with power tools and take shit apart, she barely speaks, she's been kidnapped, she had her arm broken, she wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. I'm awful at this parenting thing and I can't help feeling that they aren't going to consider how wonderful you are because they'll be too busy focusing on how bad I am."

"Tony," said Steve softly when he was sure Tony was finished, allowing the shorter man to stay facing the city only because Steve knew he'd clam up if forced to face him. "Do you remember that first call to assemble we got after bringing Emmy home?"

"I always remember the ones that keep me from sleep."

"Emmy woke up crying because of the noise," continued Steve. "And when we got to her room, she ran into my arms. I panicked. I wasn't ready to handle that, I thought I was but then I found myself with an armful of terrified four year old who honestly looked no older than a year, and my mind went blank. I passed her off to you. I know you were just as scared as I was, but you didn't let her see. You figured out the problem, had the alarm cut, soothed her, and got her to calm down. Why? Why didn't you just let her cry in fear?"

"She was scared, Steve," said Tony, rounding on Steve with an appalled glare. "I couldn't let her be scared. I had to fix it."

"And you did. Tony, you are far better at being a father than you think. I know you had a horrible example set for you but like everything else you do, you took that example and improved on it exponentially. They will see that and they will give her back to us."

"We can't lose her, Steve," whispered Tony and they let that be the only sound between them for a moment.

"We need to be leaving," whispered Steve.

Tony nodded in response, stealing one last moment of weakness by leaning back into the warm body behind him before settling into his public persona, the one that was loved and hated by the world, had taken an already successful company to new heights, who got his way by talking circles around everyone else, and who swore he survived college off of good looks and charm. It was Tony's own brand of armor that had nothing to do with saving the world and everything to do with saving Tony from more heartbreak.

The ride to the courthouse was silent, as was the walk into the correct room. Steve wanted to say something – anything – to Tony but the genius was busy scribbling notes on the pad of paper in front of him, notes that made no sense to Steve and that the soldier doubted made sense to the vast majority of people. So instead of talking, Steve fell back into the comforting old habit of sitting absolutely still and tuning out every part of the world except the steady scratching of the pen on paper next to him and the not as steady hum of voices behind him as the court room filled up for what would be the last time.

-Winging It-

"Do they call us in?" asked Bucky nervously, eying the posh room with distaste. He hated waiting, he hated the way the room smelled like old lady, he hated the couch that looked like it should never be sat on, he hated the lamp that was almost as old as he was, and he hated the fact that Phil could sit so calmly in the hideous charcoal grey armchair and fill out paperwork.

"They will let us know if we are needed," said Phil, not looking up from his work. "I doubt very much that they will ask Emmy to be inside when they reveal the verdict. More than likely, they will bring whoever won back here to reunite with her."

Emmy looked up when she heard her name but quickly dismissed the adults, turning back to her coloring book. It was an Avengers coloring book and she was busy coloring the Hulk. She had decided to make him blue since Uncle Bruce hated the color green and the pants she made orange because she liked that color. Just as she was searching for the yellow for the sun, the door opened, startling everyone in the room.

"Come to daddy," said Tiberius, arms opened.

 ***Don't hurt me. I swear, I have a plan. Always-Ari**


	25. Forty Winks

Emmy blinked up at Tiberius in confusion, head tilting to the side but otherwise making no move to get up.

"Come on, girl, we haven't got all day," said Tiberius with a forced smile, stepping further into the room. "Let's get going now."

"You won?" said Phil Coulson, setting aside his paper work and standing to ace the new comer. "I thought they would come in and tell us before allowing anyone to gather her. Her things are in my car."

"That's fine, I'll get her new things, keep them," snapped Tiberius before visibly forcing himself to smile. "Now come along, child. We have to be getting home."

Bucky took a step towards the toddler, not liking the mans tone.

"Why don't you let Emmy say good bye to Tony and Steve first?" suggested Coulson, trying to buy time while he figured out what was going on. "She can do that while I at least put her car seat in your car."

"No!" screamed Tiberius.

Emmy ran over to Bucky and hid behind his legs, cringing at the harsh voice.

"Hey, man, keep it down, you're scaring Emmy," said Bucky, eyes narrowing as he felt Emmy's trembling through his legs.

"Back away from my daughter you psycho!"

Tiberius threw himself towards Bucky but Coulson stepped between them, taser out and chest level, face as serene as ever.

"You need to step away and calm down now," said Coulson quietly.

There was shouting down the hall and feet running and Coulson still didn't move.

"Where the hell is he?" yelled a man down the hall.

Bucky set Emmy on the armchair and started towards the door to face the fast approaching threat, which turned out to be Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, and four men in uniform.

"Mr. Stone, you can't be here," declared one of the men. "You need to leave now."

"What the hell is going on?" asked Bucky.

"Get him out of my sight," snarled Steve, glaring at Tiberius as if that man was the root of all evil.

"Emmy!" said Tony, catching sight of his daughter sitting on the armchair Bucky had put her on, tears in her eyes and confusion clear on her face.

"Daddy!" squealed Emmy, lighting up at the sight of her fathers, clambering to her feet and launching herself into the air, knowing Tony or Steve would catch her. And they did.

"Emmy, I missed you," said Tony, openly weeping and he cuddled his daughter close. "I missed you so much. I love you. I love you. I love you."

"We won," explained Clint to Bucky and Coulson, unable to stop the face splitting grin.

"Then what the hell was that jack ass doing here?" said Bucky.

"After the verdict, he stormed out," said Clint. "Security lost track of him and when we couldn't find him, we figured he would try to find Emmy and take her away. So we came here."

It took everyone forty minutes to calm down enough to share the whole story, from the judge declaring Steve and Tony the legal rights to Coulson nearly shocking Stone into a drooling mess. The entire time Emmy refused to let go of Tony's dress shirt and would whimper in protest any time Steve tried to move away from where she could feel him pressed to her back.

"So is she legally yours?" asked Bucky in the end.

"The hold on the paper work has been removed, so once that is all settled she will be," replied Steve with a smile. "Shouldn't be more than a few weeks."

"Well, I'm glad this all worked out," said Coulson. "I need to be getting back to work, though. I have an agency to run, after all. It's no longer my job to be babysitting you lot."

"We're heading to the Tower," said Tony.

"Thank you so much for looking after Emmy," said Steve gratefully, shaking hands with the director. "You're welcome to join us tomorrow for our annual Christmas Eve celebration."

"I'll see what I can do," said Coulson. "Bucky."

"See you punks later," said Bucky, following Coulson out of the room.

When they finally arrived back at the Tower, Emmy was fast asleep, her previous night of nightmares and days of stress finally catching up to her tiny body and she slept peacefully curled up in Tony's jacket. Tony took her to his bedroom and curled up on the bed with her, joining her in the having a lie-down. That was how Steve found them an hour later when he finally made his way to the bedroom to change.

The sight of his husband and daughter fast asleep on top of the enormous cream covered bed was enough to take away the soldiers breath. Tony was sprawled out over the surface, one sock mostly off his foot from kicking off his shoes previously, one hand bowed under Steve's pillow, taking up as much space as possible, while Emmy took the opposite approach, curled into a tiny ball of red hair and soft clothes, thumb stuck firmly in her mouth, head pillowed by Tony's other hand.

"JARVIS, did you get a picture?" asked Steve softly.

"Yes Captain," said JARVIS in a smug tone. "I'll add it to the file?"

"Please."

Unobtrusively, Steve changed into grey sweat pants and a white cotton undershirt before finally moving around the side of the bed and kissing his husband tenderly. Tony griped but blinked his eyes open seven times before they finally stayed that way.

"You need to get up now or you'll never go to sleep tonight," Steve whispered against his lips.

"You're the devil," mumbled Tony.

"You love me," laughed Steve, pulling the smaller man into a sitting position.

Tony muttered something under his breath but allowed Steve to pull him into a fully standing position and stumbled over to his closet to change. The movement woke Emmy, who blinked in confusion before Steve scooped her up and tossed her into the air, earning a giggle from the young girl for his efforts.

"Emmy, do you know what tomorrow is?" asked Steve excitedly.

Emmy shook her head.

"Tomorrow is December 24," said Steve.

Emmy blinked, nonplussed.

"You know," Steve tried again, heading towards the door of their bedroom to join the rest of the team in the common area. "Christmas Eve?"

Emmy's face fell and she squirmed until Steve set her on the ground. Steve followed the little girl as she padded out of the room, down the hall, and into the common area. There she froze, staring at the transformed room.

"Christmas is Papa's favorite holiday," said Tony, crouching next to his daughter, dressed in a black tank top and charcoal grey sweatpants. "You'd think he'd like the 4th of July more, but you'd be wrong. It's Christmas."

"Christmas is a time for family," said Steve, making his way around the living room that looked like a Hallmark movie had exploded in it to the kitchen to pour two glasses of eggnog and one cup of milk. "It's one of the few things that hasn't changed since I was a kid."

"So Ducky," said Tony, looking at his daughter with a soft smile Steve had only ever seen him direct towards his teammates and bots. "How do you normally celebrate Christmas?"

Looking at her feet, Emmy signed her answer, small movements showing how sad it made her.

"You weren't allowed?" repeated Tony, just loud enough that he knew Steve would hear but not loud enough for it to carry to the rest of the team who were in the kitchen making a late lunch.

Emmy nodded.

"Want to know something?" whispered Tony, as if the two of them were about to conspire on a trick. "When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to celebrate Christmas properly either."

Emmy looked up at Tony with her cartoonishly large eyes in surprise.

"That's right," said Tony, nodding. "But now I'm the one who gets to make the rules and I say we celebrate Christmas. What do you say? Want to give it a try?"

She took another look around the room, at the twinkling lights, garlands, mistletoe, and plates of cookies set about, before her eyes fell on the enormous tree that was bare and the huge box of ornaments next to it waiting to be put to use. Shyly, Emmy pointed at the box.

"Let's go get your aunt and uncles and decorate this tree," said Tony, sweeping Emmy off the ground and onto his shoulders as the Avengers alarm sounded.

 ***As an apology for doing such awful things to your feels last chapter, I put extra fluff in this chapter. You're welcome. :) Always - Ari**


	26. What are you, 5?

"No," said Tony with a pout as he entered the kitchen. "Absolutely not. I'm not going."

"It's in Europe," said Natasha, studying a Stark Pad while perched on the cool counter. "Looks like Paris is taking on some damage from two idiots with electricity and freeze rays."

"I don't care, let them handle it," said Tony. "I'm saying no to this. In fact, as the primary benefactor here, I'm saying no to international travel for the entire team. Do you know how expensive those flights are this close to a holiday?"

"Tony," said Steve, gently lifting Emmy off of his husband's shoulders and setting her on the counter. "I know you don't want to, but we have to go."

"Daddy," said Emmy, holding out her arms, not wanting to be far from him after being taken away for so long.

"I'm not going," said Tony, scooping Emmy back up and holding her close. "She just came home, you really think leaving her is a good idea?"

"No, I don't but we have to go," said Steve softly, imploringly. "You know we do."

"Why don't we just bring Emmy with us?" suggested Bruce as he made a ham and tomato sandwich.

"Are you insane?" yelled Steve and Tony, glaring at the scientist.

"It doesn't seem like a code green since they are calling us from around the world," shrugged Bruce. "We can fly over, take the new jet, and I'll sit with Emmy while you guys do your thing."

"And if it turns out to be a code green?" demanded Steve.

"Then I'll watch her," said Coulson, entering the kitchen with Bucky in tow. "Stark, time to test that new jet. We need to get going if we're going to make it back in time for Christmas."

Emmy clapped her hands when Tony set her down and ran to her room to get her blanket. Steve packed a small bag for her and the rest changed and boarded the jet. It was fast, faster then was probably legal but somehow Tony had convinced Coulson to work some paper magic and make the rules bend, so they got away with it.

"Bunk beds?" said Clint, running around the jet like a kid in a candy shop. "This is awesome."

"Seriously, what are you, five?" said Natasha disdainfully.

"Bunk beds are cool!" argued Clint. "Beds! With a ladder! That's awesome and you know it!"

"Settle down, Robin Hood," said Tony, strapping Emmy in to a seat for take off. "I'm driving."

"Bossy," grumbled Clint.

The flight was uneventful and fast, Emmy fell asleep over the ocean, curled up on the lower bunk with her blanket that Clint had given up trying to get back. Tony let everyone drop close to the action before circling around and landing the jet a little farther away before suiting up and heading out, leaving Bruce and Coulson alone with Emmy and the jet. Emmy slept through most of it, waking briefly towards the end wanting a glass of water but otherwise missed most of the action.

The battle was quick and relatively painless but not quick enough for Tony, who ran through twelve languages worth of complaints about being called away from home for it. For once, no one told him to be quiet because they all knew he was justified and his constant prattle was helping ground Steve, who was quiet with the threat of being frozen again looming over him. It was not a code green for which Bruce and Paris were grateful. When everyone finally made it back to the jet, it was well into the day and Emmy was getting anxious.

"Clint, you're driving," said Tony softly as everyone secured their gear.

"What?" said Clint, eager to get his hands on the new controls of the plane but shocked that Tony would willingly hand them over when the billionaire was more than capable of piloting the return trip. Tony was always the pilot unless he was flying ahead. It was one of his quirks, like not being handed things, and they had adapted – albeit kicking and screaming on Clint's part because the archer loved to fly.

"You pilot, I'm going to check on Steve."

Understanding dropped on the archer like an anvil and he took the pilots seat without further dispute. Tony guided Steve over to the lower bunk where Emmy promptly crawled onto the super soldiers lap. Steve wrapped his muscled arms around the girl, burying his face in her sweet smelling hair.

"You okay?" asked Tony softly, settling in next to his husband and daughter as Clint steered the plane into the air.

"Yeah," sighed Steve, his voice muffled by their daughter's hair. "Better now. Just want to go home."

"Told you we should have sat this one out," said Tony, unable to resist pointing out that he was right.

In response, Steve lifted his middle finger, causing Tony to laugh and lay down, ready to doze through the remainder of the flight. After several minutes, Steve joined his husband in trying to catch up on some sleep before arriving back in New York. Emmy waited several minutes before finally getting up and walking over to Bucky, who was having a difficult time reverting back from Winter Soldier mode; everyone was giving him space.

"Em," began Bruce when he spotted Emmy approaching Bucky. "We need to leave Uncle Bucky alone right now."

At that moment, the plane hit some turbulence, causing it to shudder briefly, sending Emmy to the ground hard. Before anyone else could react, Bucky had picked the young girl up and was looking her over for injuries.

"You hurt, kid?" asked Bucky gruffly, pushing his Winter Soldier training away with visible effort and not quite succeeding.

Emmy shook her head no and made the sign for book.

"Emmy," said Bruce softly, slowly coming forward, afraid Bucky might snap if he moved to quickly. "Why don't we let Uncle Bucky rest for a while? I'll read you a story."

"No," said Bucky, glaring at the scientist, more than a shade of Winter Soldier in his voice. "I'm reading to her. She's mine."

There was silence throughout the plane for several tense minutes, everyone seemingly waiting for someone to crack and something to break, praying no one – namely Emmy – was caught in the crossfire, before Clint piped up.

"Great, now the Winter Soldier is claiming her. Just don't let Stark hear you, he only shares with Steve."


	27. Christmas with the Team

She couldn't reach more than the lowest branches of the tree, so most of the ornaments decorated the lowest area. The Avengers helped hang lights and tinsel and every once in a while Emmy would tug on Clint of Steve's pants and they would lift her up so she could reach a higher branch. Christmas music played softly in the background, the overall mood was cheerful and happy in a way that they didn't always get to enjoy.

Emmy picked up a glass bubble. It was a picture of all of the Avengers on their first Christmas together. Tony and Steve weren't dating yet, though in the picture Steve was laughing at something Tony had said, Tony was grinning with that private smile he used when he thought no one was looking and was truly happy with himself – they were rare and far between. Natasha was sitting on Clint's shoulders, putting the star on top of the tree while Bruce looked on nervously from the side.

Bubble in hand, Emmy ran up to Natasha, who was sitting on the couch sipping hot chocolate made by Steve, and tugged on her navy blue yoga pants.

"Yes, malyutka?" said Natasha, allowing the Russian endearment to slip through.

Emmy tugged her pants again and held up her arms.

Carefully, Natasha picked Emmy up and carried her over to the tree. Everyone pretended they weren't watching but they secretly were. Emmy gently placed the bubble next to a metal star while Natasha held her up, hardly daring to breathe, but the toddler seemed perfectly calm and happy. Tony sniggered from his place by the outlet where he was messing with the wires.

"Damn, Nat, I've never seen you more awkward," laughed Tony. "She's a child, not a nuke."

"Language," chided Steve.

"She's never let me pick her up before unless she absolutely had to," said Natasha almost reverently. "This is new for me."

Tony's smile softened as he realized what this meant; it was a huge step for both Natasha and Emmy; Natasha because she was learning what unconditional love from a child was and Emmy because she was finally trusting a woman enough to instigate casual contact.

"JARVIS?" prompted Tony.

"Image captured," replied JARVIS softly so as not to disturb the moment.

When the tree was decorated, everyone settled on the ground around the couch while Steve sat on the couch, waiting for the American idol to read them the traditional story, "Santa Paws" – a story about a stray dog who just wants to find a home for Christmas. Emmy fell asleep after the third chapter, curled up like a cat on Tony's lap. Tony followed soon after, leaning against Clint, snoring lightly. Clint, Natasha, and Bruce, all made it to the end of the story.

After setting the book aside, Steve helped Natasha and Bruce gather up the abandoned mugs with chocolate dregs staining the sides and deposit them in the kitchen sink before rescuing Clint from his duties as pillow.

"See you in the morning," whispered Steve and he lifted his slumbering husband and daughter alike into his arms and headed towards their rooms.

Steve tucked Tony into bed before gently lifting Emmy off of his stomach and carrying her to her own room. Once there, Steve set her down in her bed and pulled Clint's blanket up over her. Emmy snuggled under the blanket, one hand clutching it close, as Steve kissed her messy red hair.

"Good night, Emmy," whispered Steve. "I love you very much."

That night, everyone in the tower slept without nightmares – which had to be a first for the super hero gang with more baggage than an airport.

In the morning, Emmy crept into her fathers' bedroom and crawled onto their bed, sitting on the very edge facing them. The two men were still fast asleep, Steve on his back, right arm splayed out to the side, right leg half exposed to the crisp air, and Tony on his side, head pillowed on Steve's bare chest, left arm possessively curled around the soldier's slim waist. They looked peaceful; Emmy jumped on Steve's stomach.

"What?" gasped Steve, waking to the sudden impact of a slight and soft something hitting his stomach.

"Papa," said Emmy imploringly, digging her little knees into Steve's abs as she bounced in place.

"Tony," grumbled Steve, closing his eyes again and falling back onto the mountain of pillows. "Your daughter's awake."

"She's your daughter too," said Tony, his voice muffled by Steve's side where he had buried his face.

"She's yours before the sun rises."

Tony groused but conceded, taking extra care to place a hand on Steve's face when he was pushing himself up, receiving a tart but sleepy glare from the blonde for his efforts. Emmy stood on Steve's stomach when she realized that it was Tony who would be feeding her breakfast today and crouched, ready to spring off the bed.

"Coffee," said Tony, running a hand through his messy brown hair and snatching Emmy up before the girl could jump. "Come on, Ducky. Let's get coffee."

"You can't feed a four year old coffee," said Steve, cracking a single eye open.

"You can't complain unless you drag your as – butt out of bed," replied Tony.

Emmy squirmed until Tony set her down, then she ran out of the room. Instead of heading to the living room, however, she started knocking on the doors of the rest of the Avengers, not waiting for a reply before moving on to the next door. Eventually, each one stuck their head out of their respective rooms – Natasha and Bruce out of the same one, though no one dared comment – and eyed the young girl suspiciously.

"Why is the brat waking us up at this unholy hour?" complained Bucky, his long hair a tangled rats nest.

"Christmas!" yelled Clint, the day finally clicking in his head. "Yes! I can't wait to see what Tony got me this year. Come on, Emmy, your daddy gives the coolest presents."

Emmy raced after Clint, laughing as she caught on to his excitement.

In the living room, the Christmas tree had presents overflowing from under it's boughs. It wasn't the designer tree that the public assumed Tony Stark would have, decorated and made to be published in a magazine. The lights were uneven, the tinsel spread in clumps because Bruce didn't like it all over, and most of the ornaments were at toddler level because Emmy had put most of them up but to Tony, who had grown up with those designer trees, thought it was a thousand times better.

Tony sat down on the couch and watched as Emmy helped Clint distribute the wrapped gifts. As he watched, a steaming mug of coffee appeared in front of his face. Following the steady hand up the arm to the rest of the body attached, he found his husband smiling down at him, his blonde hair still a mess but a white shirt pulled over his chest, resting just above his red plaid sleep pants.

"Merry Christmas, love," whispered Steve, leaning down to kiss Tony.

"Merry Christmas, handsome," replied Tony just as softly.

"Daddy," said Emmy, hefting a present on to Tony's lap.

"Thank you, Ducky," said Tony with a smile. "Is this for me?"

Emmy nodded then ran back to Clint for another gift. It took almost an hour to sort the presents. By that time Bruce had finished making pancakes in the shape of Santa hats, decorating the rim with whipped cream and the rest with strawberry slices. They ate on the ground around the living room floor, another Christmas tradition, before opening their presents. When they finished, they started taking turns opening presents.

"So who gets to start this year?" asked Clint, practically bouncing in place in excitement.

"Youngest to oldest this year," said Bruce. "You got to start last year, Clint, so don't complain."

"Emmy, which gift to you want to open first?" asked Tony while Clint stuck his tongue out at Bruce.

Emmy picked up a small package wrapped in sky blue paper. It was from Steve and Tony.

"Go ahead," encouraged Tony when Emmy looked up at him, as if asking for permission.

Tearing open the paper, Emmy squealed with delight when she found a necklace with a soft blue glow, a miniature arc reactor.

"The chain is made from a bit of Papa's shield," said Tony with a soft smile.

Emmy threw herself onto her fathers, trying and failing to hug them both with her tiny arms, but that was okay because the two super hero's were more than capable of hugging her back.

 ***Does anyone watch Criminal Minds?**

 **Always - Ari**


	28. Gifts

Tony loved giving people presents. He looked for any excuse to get away with it; it was how he showed affection, much like teasing. Each of the Avengers had learned of this particular quirk shortly after moving into the Tower. At first, they had just assumed that Tony had Pepper design rooms for each of them, had Happy stock the kitchen with all of their favorite foods, but then Rhodey showed up for the first time. Tony had been elated.

 _"_ _Rhodey!" squealed Tony – though he would deny any squealing when questioned later – throwing himself at his best friend when he stumbled out of the elevator and found the man in the living room._

 _"_ _You need a shower, kid," said Rhodey with an affectionate smile, allowing Tony to lean on him because he knew the genius was normally touch starved. "What, did you bathe in motor oil or something?"_

 _"_ _Oh, I made you this!" said Tony, pulling away and dragging Rhodey over to his corner of the living room, the one that he had claimed by filling with odds and ends that no one else could understand. Tony grabbed one of said odds and held it out to Rhodey. "It's a new locator."_

 _"_ _Thanks, buddy," said Rhodey, smiling at the improved version of the locator he had. "After you've showered and eaten something more than coffee you can show me how to work it."_

 _"_ _Bossy," grumbled Tony, though he turned away to go shower anyway._

 _When the billionaire was gone, the other Avengers looked at Rhodes with interest._

 _"_ _So you're Rhodey?" said Steve finally. "It's nice to meet you."_

 _Rhodes sent Steve a glare._

 _"_ _Well someone doesn't like Steve," snickered Clint, perching on the back of the couch, eating a ham sandwich._

 _"_ _Look," said Rhodes, glaring at the room in general. "Tony is thrilled to have you lot here because he's a generous asshole, but I'm not sold on the idea."_

 _"_ _We weren't too happy about it either," said Clint. "But when SHEILD went to shit we needed a place to crash and Stark offered this up. How he got Pepper to design our rooms that quick, I'll never know."_

 _"_ _Wait, you think Pepper did that?"_

 _"_ _Well yeah, I don't know a lot of people that Tony give access to these quarters."_

 _"_ _You lot are even bigger idiots than I thought," groaned Rhodey. "I can't believe this."_

 _"_ _What?" asked Bruce, looking up from the book he had been trying and failing to read instead of actively participating in the conversation._

 _"_ _Tony designed those rooms himself," explained Rhodey. "He agonized over them for weeks after that battler in New York. He knew you guys would probably never move in but he wanted you to have a place to call your own if you ever needed an escape."_

 _"_ _He designed the rooms?" said Steve, shock written all over his face._

 _"_ _Don't even get me started on you, Captain," growled Rhodey, pointing a finger at the blonde. "You don't even deserve to be in the same room let alone live in the same building as Tony after what you said to him."_

 _Steve had the good grace to look at the floor as guilt flooded his biologically enhanced system; Rhodes was right, what he had said was uncalled for and still made him cringe when he thought about it._

 _"_ _Hey now, you know what Stark is like," said Natasha, defending Steve when it became apparent the super soldier would not act on his own behalf._

 _"_ _Yeah, I do, a hell of a lot better than you lot. He's the most annoying, egotistical, obnoxious, clingy, sympathetic, sensitive, kind, giving, self-destructive, generous asshole I've ever met. But that's just it, that's what you are missing. He would give up everything, all of it, if it meant you liked him. Tony doesn't care about money, he likes to spend it on the people he cares about, which strangely enough is you guys. So if I hear that you are making him feel like he's trying to buy your friendship or that you make him feel bad about giving you shit, I'm going to make your life hell. And I won't even do it personally, I'll make a task force do it for me, because if you think that little of Tony then you aren't even worth a visit from me."_

 _They were going to respond – they were the Avengers and they were not cowed by one measly man, after all – but all they could do was nod their understanding as Tony came back into the room, his hair still damp but not dripping (never dripping, the genius had a thing about water dripping) and the moment to act Avenger-y passed._

 _"_ _Alright Sour Patch," said Tony, throwing an arm around Rhodey and steering him into the kitchen. "Coffee first, play time after. Oh, and you need to see the awesome new arrows I built! They knock out instead of kill. You know, in case Hawk-ass isn't feeling lethal or Agent gets on him again about paper work created by killing."_

 _Clint felt an unhealthy stirring of guilt in his stomach at those words – he hadn't put much thought into how his new arrows came about – but it was nothing compared to the guilt he and the others were beginning to feel as they realized just how much Tony gave without expecting anything in return._

So after many Christmas's, birthdays, Arbor days, Flag Days, Days Days, the team had grown more than accustomed to Tony's gifts – they had come to love them. Tony was undeniably awful at feelings, he couldn't tell most that he cared about them with his words, he panicked when anyone but Steve (and now Emmy) cried, but he would make up for all of that in his thoughtful gifts, the ones the Avengers had initially assumed were his attempt at buying them off when in reality it was him trying to say he liked them.

It took ages for them to open all their gifts but when they were finally done, Coulson stepped forward and handed Steve a folder.

"I'm not doing paperwork on Christmas," said Tony defiantly.

"I gave it to Steve," replied Coulson mildly. "And it's completed."

"Wait, then why did you give it to Steve?" whined Tony.

"Tony, I already gave you my present, a month of doing all your paperwork for you."

"Yeah, and you gave Steve a bicycle built for two, so he doesn't get free paperwork!"

"You big baby, it's the adoption papers for Emmy," sighed Coulson, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I managed to get it all done this morning. It took some doing, government agencies don't like rushing anything or working on holidays, but there. She's officially yours."

There was a moment of silence before the room erupted in cheers and tears, though Tony would deny contributing to the tears later, when he was finished hugging his official daughter.

 ***Alrighty readers. We are about two chapters from the end. At the end of the story, I will leave it up to you lot if you want a sequel. Always-Ari**


	29. Fire Drill

Emmy shook her head, not at all liking the room in front of her and making that clear to whoever was close enough to see.

"Emmy, you liked the school last week when we toured it," said Steve gently, kneeling next to her. "What changed, sweetie?"

Emmy signed quickly to him, her face falling as she cast yet another anxious look down the hall.

"Sweetheart, you knew that there would be people here," sighed Steve at Emmy's voiced concern. "You need to be around people your age."

Emmy pouted, little tears filling her eyes but not falling. Steve sighed again and pulled her in for a hug as noise from the kindergarten room echoed out to them.

"Sorry I'm late," gasped Tony, running down the hall and skidding to a halt next to his family. "Pepper wouldn't let me leave early. Emmy, why aren't you in your classroom yet?"

Emmy looked up at Tony imploringly, hoping he would see sense in the insane idea they had of putting her in school. It had come up right after the adoption had been finalized, how they planned on educating Emmy. Steve and Tony both agreed that she needed to be in a school with children her own age, at least for a little while. They had researched schools, toured, interviewed, and eventually settled on one close to the Tower that was Kindergarten to Fourth grade with four classes for each grade. It was diverse, had a mixed socioeconomic background, and allowed Emmy to have a large pool of children to choose from to be friends with but not an overwhelming amount of people older than her. The big selling point, however, was the fact that the kindergarten teacher Emmy would have was a male. That was how they found themselves two weeks after the new year started, sitting outside of a noisy kindergarten classroom with a daughter who was not at all sold on the idea of going.

"Tony, maybe we should wait," whispered Steve. "She's not even five. Almost everyone starts at five. She's going to be so young for her class."

"Steve, she's brilliant, she's always going to be young for her class," said Tony dismissively. "She'll be fine. Come on, Ducky, let's go see what your new friends look like!"

Tony took Emmy's hand and walked her into the room with Steve right behind. It was chaotic, loud, but everyone seemed to be happy and her new teacher, Mr. Lee, greeted them at the door. He was in his late twenties, two inches taller than Tony, with sandy hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hello," said Mr. Lee. "Emmy, I'm so glad you are here. This is your cubby, you can hang your coat there and put your lunch in the bin, just like you practiced, remember?"

Emmy shyly hung up her jacket and put her lunch box away, stealing glances around the room as she did.

"Alright, Ducky," said Tony, getting on one knee in front of his daughter. "You have fun at school and Papa and I will pick you up when it's over. Understand?"

Emmy nodded and gave Tony a hug before hugging Steve as well.

"Good girl," said Tony with a grin. "Now, I see some boys over by the building blocks who look like they could use some help building a proper bridge. Why don't you go show them how it's done?"

Emmy nodded and wandered over to the blocks.

"Thank you very much," said Steve to Mr. Lee. "Please call if there's any trouble or she's upset or-"

"We'll see you at pick up time," interrupted Tony, pulling his husbands arm to drag him from the room.

Before Mr. Lee could respond, the pair of super hero's were gone. Steve allowed Tony to pull him out of the building and almost halfway home before stopping him.

"How can you be fine?" asked Steve, a tiny hint of anger in his voice but mostly it was confusion. "Natasha bet you would be a bawling mess."

Tony looked up at Steve, unshed tears glistening in his eyes, and that look said enough about how emotional Tony actually was and how hard he was trying to hide it. He had been upbeat and happy for Emmy because that's what she needed, he was determined to make it to his workshop before losing it completely.

"Okay," whispered Steve, kissing Tony's forehead. "Let's go home."

In the classroom, Emmy didn't mind the other kids in her class. They were loud and asked lots of questions and no one seemed to want to sit still for story time, but they weren't mean and Mr. Lee never pushed her for an answer even though she knew most of the answers to the questions he asked. It wasn't until the end of nap time that there was a problem.

The fire alarm went off.

It was a scheduled drill, the school was required to run them at least once a semester, but it was loud and blaring and there were flashing lights and when Mr. Lee brought the class out into the fall to leave the building, it was full of other students. Everyone was trying to get out at once and she knew there were lines, she knew that all she needed to do was follow the little boy, Asher, in front of her, and she would be fine, but that didn't help when one of the bigger boys, a fourth grader, was shoved out of his own line by another fourth grader and the boy who was shoved fell into Emmy, knocking them both to the ground. By the time Emmy got to her feet, her class was gone and most of the other kids had followed, leaving her and the boy nearly alone in the blaring hall.

"Sorry," sighed the boy, getting up and dusting off his pants before fixing his black rimmed, askew glasses. "Flash can be such an idiot."

Emmy looked around wildly, her hands signing her desire to get out and find her class or better yet her fathers.

"Let's go outside before we get in trouble, kid," said the boy.

Emmy didn't follow him and he came back after several steps, holding out his hand.

"I'm just going to take you outside to find your teacher, okay, kid?" said the boy. "It's quieter outside."

Reluctantly, Emmy followed, her tiny hand dwarfed by the fourth graders, but he let them walk at her pace, not pulling her along too quickly so her little legs could keep up. They made it outside much faster than Emmy thought they would and he quickly spotted the frantic kindergarten teacher.

"Emmy!" gushed Mr. Lee when the boy brought Emmy over. "Thank goodness! How did you get lost? You were supposed to stay in line. Fire drills can be scary."

"Sorry, Mr. Lee," said the boy. "That was my fault. Flash pushed me and I tripped over Emmy."

"Well, thank you for bringing her back," said Mr. Lee with a kind smile. "Now you'd better get going to your class or you'll get in trouble."

"Bye, Emmy," said the boy, using the name he assumed was the girls, if her teachers use of it was anything to go by.

Emmy waved and joined her peers in line.

When it was time to get picked up, all of the students waited outside, running around the school yard until they heard their name getting yelled. Emmy ran up to the fourth grade boy who had helped her and sat next to him. He was reading a book.

"Hey kid," said the boy when he noticed her staring intently at the cover. "It's about robots."

Emmy's entire face lit up and she quickly dug through her backpack and pulled out the old robot from the orphanage. Proudly, she held it out for his inspection.

"That's a nice robot," said the boy.

Emmy nodded and pushed a button. The robot turned on.

"Good afternoon, Miss Emmy," said the robot in JARVIS's voice. Tony had been sure to install the AI shortly after Emmy arrived home. "Your fathers arrive shortly to pick you up."

"Whoa, is that an AI?" gasped the boy excitedly.

Emmy nodded proudly and signed that her daddy had made it.

"That is so cool!"

"Emmy!" called a familiar voice.

Emmy looked up and waved at her daddy and papa, hugging them both when they came close enough. Tony picked her up and twirled her in the air, laughing as she squealed in delight before handing her off to Steve, who kissed her cheek and set her back down.

"Did you have a good first day of school?" asked Tony, crouching next to Emmy on the cold ground.

Emmy nodded, signing and smiling as she explained how her day went. They boy wandered off and Emmy allowed Tony to pull on her purple mittens before taking his hand and following Steve out of the yard and back towards the Tower. It was a slow walk, several blocks in the cold, and the wind began to pick up as sleet started to fall about a block into it. Tony hoisted Emmy up and pulled her into his jacket, allowing her to bury her face into his shirt to protect it from the wet precipitation.

"Next time we are driving," said Steve when they made it back into the warmth of the Tower. "I know for a fact that you have a beautiful collection of luxury cars. We are taking one of those. Man kind spent those 70 years I was frozen perfecting inside. I am not going to disregard all that hard work."

"You big baby," laughed Tony, setting Emmy down when they reached the common living room. The girl ran into the room and jumped on the couch, landing on top of Bucky, who was watching a Hallmark movie.

"Hey brat," said Bucky, sitting up as Steve's phone began to ring. "How did school go?"

Emmy launched into her day with gusto.

"Hello?" said Steve, holding the phone to his ear.

"You still want a son?" said Coulson on the other line.

 ***Well, next chapter is the last one. Always- Ari**


	30. Serious as Coulson

"I can't believe this is happening," said Steve for the tenth time, anxiously bouncing on the balls of his feet, staring at the elevator with such intensity that it was as if he thought staring alone would make the object of his desire appear. It didn't work but that didn't stop him. If Steve was anything, it was stubborn.

"Me either," said Tony, standing half a foot behind his husband, hands itching to do something until Steve's warm one found one of Tony's scarred ones and they settled.

"What if he doesn't want us to adopt him?" worried Steve, still unable to tear his eyes away from the door.

"He already knows that adoption is the end game," said Tony far more calmly than he felt. "Agent said he talked to the kid about it a few hours ago. He knew his last home wasn't permanent but this one will be. He wouldn't have agreed if he didn't want to have a forever home. Besides, this is different, it's not like Emmy. This kid wants a home."

"I know, I know, I just never really thought this would happen. Not like this, not with emergency custody because of overcrowding of all things."

The two super hero's stood in silence for a minutes. The normally busy common room was empty of everyone but Tony and Steve; Natasha and Clint were off on a short mission, Thor was off planet, Bruce was in his lab avoiding everyone, and Bucky had taken Emmy to her room to play before bed. They had decided it was best to give the new child space, not overwhelm him with a ton of loud people.

Tony had a point, Emmy had given up hope of ever being adopted after years of abuse and neglect, this boy had not. He had only entered the system a few months before after living with his ailing aunt for several years. His parents had died in a car crash when he was five. When his aunt got to the point where she could no longer care for him, she placed him in the care of a family friend who was young and agreed to take care of him when until he was adopted. It wasn't ideal, but the young lady loved the boy and when Coulson found out about the situation he knew just who to call. When the boy had been not only receptive but ecstatic to hear he had a family who wanted him, Coulson called Steve and set up the meeting.

"What if he doesn't like Emmy?" asked Steve. "I thought we would have more time with her, get her more settled, before adopting another kid. What if she thinks we're trying to replace her?"

"We'll show her that's not going to happen," said Tony confidently, though honestly he had been wondering the same thing. They hadn't gotten to explain to Emmy that she was getting a brother yet and Tony worried that the sudden new addition to the family would unsettle her barely settled world.

The elevator doors opened and Agent Coulson walked through with a smiling young boy with messy brown hair, pulling a suitcase larger than the boy behind him.

"Hello," said Coulson blandly. "Peter, I'd like you to meet Steve and Tony Stark-Rogers. Steve, Tony, this is Peter Parker."

"It's nice to meet you, Peter," said Steve with that warm smile he had that instantly put the boy at ease. "How old are you?"

"I'm ten years and two months old," said Peter proudly with an impish grin. "I'm tall for my age."

"I can see that," laughed Steve. "Why don't we sit down?"

Coulson nodded approvingly and the four made their way to the living room. Peter sat on the couch comfortably, looking around the room with interest while Coulson took a seat next to him and Tony and Steve sat on the adjacent couch.

"So you guys really want to adopt me?" said Peter without preamble, leaning forward eagerly in his seat. "Because it's not like I don't love Miss Sharon, she's great, but I've always wanted a real family. And Coulson said you were serious and he doesn't really seem to joke around, so you must be serious and you really do want to adopt me."

"If you would like us to, yes," said Steve. "We would very much like to adopt you."

"Why?" said Peter, eyes narrowing – not out of suspicion but curiosity, as if they were a problem he wanted to figure out.

"You need a home," said Steve. "We have a home we want to give you. Tony and I can't have children on our own but even if we could we wouldn't want to, not when we know someone out there already needs a family. We want to be that family for you, we want you as part of our family."

Peter seemed to think on that some more as he looked around the room again.

"So what do I call you guys?" asked Peter after a minute.

Steve and Tony grinned in relief at the statement.

"Daddy!" screamed Emmy, sprinting into the room, Bucky hot on her heels.

The four year old completely ignored Coulson and Peter, launching herself at Tony, sobbing.

"She freaked out," said Bucky gruffly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "It was my fault, I bumped the light switch while we were playing and the lights turned out but her lamp wasn't on so it was all dark. Sorry."

"Hey, it's okay, Ducky," said Tony, standing up and walking around the room, soothingly rocking from side to side as he did, patting Emmy's back and letting the girl sob into his shirt. "You're okay. I've got you. You're here, not there. I promise she can't hurt you anymore. Come on, you're fine."

"This is our daughter, Emmy," said Steve, feeling like he needed to explain to the boy. "She's had a bit of a rough time of it and doesn't really talk. We were going to introduce you two at breakfast in the morning."

"It's okay, I already met her at school," said Peter, not at all concerned. "Flash pushed me and I accidently knocked her over during the fire drill and walked her outside when we got separated from our classes."

"You're the nice big kid?" said Steve with an adoring smile. "Emmy told us all about you."

Peter beamed at the praise and Steve finally understood exactly what Tony had meant the day they met Emmy, how the billionaire had talked to the girl and just known she was the one.

"Tony," said Steve softly as Tony came back and sat down on the couch next to him, Emmy still shaking in his arms but no longer sobbing. "He's mine."

"Now who's possessive?" grinned Tony

 ***The end. I can't believe it's over. I hope you enjoyed it as much as me. Now for the next question.**

 **Sequel or no?**

 **Always-Ari**


	31. Sequel

Posted the first chapter to "Winging It" called "Home Base" I will delete this note shortly, just wanted you to know.


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